CN113271167A

CN113271167A - Method for determining timing advance and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN113271167A
Application number: CN202011105020.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王晓鲁; 罗禾佳; 陈莹; 李榕; 王斌
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-14
Filing date: 2020-10-15
Publication date: 2021-08-17
Also published as: EP4099768A1; US20220393957A1; JP2023513593A; WO2021159726A1; EP4099768A4; JP7401690B2

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a method and a communication device for determining a Timing Advance, which are used for improving the precision of Timing Advance (TA) calculation of a terminal and solving the problem of Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI). The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a first network device determines a first parameter according to a first delay compensation value, wherein the first delay compensation value is delay compensation performed by the first network device for receiving a signal transmitted by a terminal, the first parameter is used for indicating a difference value between a round trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) and the first delay compensation value, and the difference value is used for determining a Timing Advance (TA) used by the terminal for transmitting the signal; the first network device sends the first parameter.

Description

Method for determining timing advance and communication device

Cross Reference to Related Applications

The priority of chinese patent application entitled "a method of determining timing advance, a communications device" filed by the chinese patent office on 14/02/2020, application number 202010093795.0, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a communications apparatus for determining a timing advance.

Background

For non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication, when a terminal sends a preamble, the terminal may receive a common timing advance value broadcasted by a network device, and use the common timing advance value as a Timing Advance (TA) to reduce the influence of round-trip delay between the terminal and the network device on receiving a random access preamble and improve inter-symbol interference (ISI).

In practical applications, the network device often performs a part of delay compensation on the round trip delay between the terminal and the network device, so that the delay actually required to be compensated by the terminal should be only a part of the common timing advance value. However, in the prior art, the terminal can only know the common timing advance value broadcasted by the network device, and cannot calculate the accurate TA, so that the random access preamble still has serious ISI.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method and a communication device for determining timing advance, which are used for improving the TA calculation precision of a terminal and the TA accuracy.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a TA, including: the method comprises the steps that a first network device determines a first parameter according to a first delay compensation value, wherein the first delay compensation value is delay compensation performed by the first network device for receiving a signal transmitted by a terminal, the first parameter is used for indicating a difference value between a round trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) and the first delay compensation value, and the difference value is used for determining a Timing Advance (TA) used by the terminal for transmitting the signal; the first network device sends the first parameter.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the first parameter may indicate a difference between a round-trip delay of the feeder link and the first delay compensation value, when the terminal determines the TA according to the first parameter after receiving the first parameter, the situation that the first network device performs a part of delay compensation on a signal sent by the terminal is considered, so that the accuracy TA of the terminal in calculating the TA may be improved, and the ISI problem may be further improved.

In one possible embodiment, the first parameter is used to indicate a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value, and includes: the first parameter is a difference value between the round trip delay of the feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value; or, the first parameter is used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value.

The implementation mode provides two possible implementation modes of the first parameter, and the flexibility of the scheme is improved.

In a possible implementation, the first parameter is used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value, and the first parameter may be a position coordinate of a compensation reference point; and determining the round-trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network equipment according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point and the position coordinate of the second network equipment.

Through the implementation mode, the terminal can determine the difference value only according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point and the position coordinate of the second network equipment, a novel indication mode is provided for the difference value, and the terminal side is simple to implement.

In a possible implementation manner, in order to improve the flexibility of the scheme, in a specific implementation, the first parameter may be a difference value or a position coordinate of the compensation reference point. Further, the first network device may further send first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first parameter is the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensated reference point.

Through the implementation mode, the terminal equipment can determine whether the first parameter is the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point according to the first indication information, and further adopts a corresponding algorithm to calculate the TA used for sending the signal, so that the flexibility of the scheme is improved, and meanwhile, the reliability of the scheme is ensured.

As an optional implementation manner, if the first parameter is the position coordinate of the compensated reference point, the first network device may further send second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value; wherein the first delay compensation value is smaller than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the feeder link, and the difference is a positive value; or, the first delay compensation value is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the service link in the NTN, and the difference is a negative value.

Through the implementation mode, the terminal can determine the positive and negative of the difference value according to the second indication information, and then calculate the TA according to the difference value, so that the accuracy of the TA is further ensured.

In one possible embodiment, the TA is: a sum of a round trip delay of a service link in the NTN and the difference; or, the sum of the round trip delay of the service link in the NTN, the difference, and the offset; wherein the offset is associated with a time division duplex, TDD, mode or a frequency division duplex, FDD, mode.

By the implementation mode, multiple possible calculation modes of TA are provided, and the flexibility and the applicability of the scheme are improved.

In a possible implementation, the first network device may further transmit a second parameter, where the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device.

By the embodiment, the terminal without the positioning function can obtain the common round-trip delay of the service link of the beam or the cell covered by the second network device according to the second parameter, and further, the common round-trip delay of the service link is used as the round-trip delay of the service link between the terminal without the positioning function and the second network device, so that the terminal without the positioning function can accurately calculate the TA.

In one possible embodiment, the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device, and includes:

the second parameter is a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device, or the second parameter is used for determining the common round trip delay of the service link of the beam or the cell covered by the second network device.

The implementation mode provides two possible implementation modes of the second parameter, and the flexibility of the scheme is improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by a second network device, and the second parameter is a position coordinate of a serving link reference point; the common round trip delay of the service link is determined according to the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device, and the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device is determined according to the position coordinate of the service link reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device.

Through the implementation mode, the terminal can determine the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device according to the position coordinate of the service link reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device, the implementation mode provides a novel indication mode for the common round trip delay of the service link of the second network device covering the beam or the cell, and the terminal side is simple to implement.

In a possible implementation manner, the first network device may send third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the second parameter is a common round trip delay of the service link or a location coordinate of the service link reference point.

Through the implementation mode, the terminal device can determine whether the second parameter is the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link according to the third indication information, and further calculate the TA used for sending the signal by adopting a corresponding algorithm, so that the flexibility of the scheme is improved, and the reliability of the scheme is ensured.

In one possible embodiment, the first network device may carry the first parameter in a SIB1, OSI, or MIB; the first network device may further bear the first parameter in RRC information, RRC reconfiguration message, DCI, group DCI, MAC element, or TAC in an RRC connection phase; the first network device may further carry the first parameter in an RRC reconfiguration message or BWP-related signaling when the terminal performs cell/beam/BWP handover.

By the implementation mode, various implementation modes for the first network equipment to send the first parameter are provided, and the flexibility of the scheme is improved.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a TA, including: the second network equipment determines the position coordinate of a compensation reference point according to a second time delay compensation value, wherein the second time delay compensation value is a time delay compensation value which is made by the second network equipment aiming at a signal sent by a receiving terminal; the second delay compensation value is used for determining a TA used by the terminal to send a signal, where the TA is equal to a round trip delay of a serving link in the NTN minus the second delay compensation value; the second network device transmits the position coordinates of the compensated reference point.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the position coordinate of the compensation reference point is determined by the second network device according to the second delay compensation value, and the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value performed by the second network device for the signal transmitted by the receiving terminal, when the terminal determines the TA according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point after receiving the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, the situation that the second network device performs a part of delay compensation on the signal transmitted by the terminal is considered, so that the accuracy of the terminal in calculating the TA can be improved, and the ISI problem TA can be improved better.

In a possible implementation, the second network device may further transmit a second parameter, where the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device.

In one possible embodiment, the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device, and includes: the second parameter is a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device, or the second parameter is used for determining the common round trip delay of the service link of the beam or the cell covered by the second network device.

The implementation mode provides two possible implementation modes of the second parameter, and the flexibility of the scheme is improved. In a possible implementation manner, the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device, and the second parameter is a position coordinate of a serving link reference point; the common round trip delay of the service link is determined according to the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device, and the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device is determined according to the position coordinate of the service link reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the second network device may further send third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the second parameter is a common round trip delay of the service link or a location coordinate of the service link reference point.

In one possible embodiment, the second network device may send the position coordinates of the compensation reference point carried in SIB1, OSI or MIB; the second network device may further bear the position coordinate of the compensation reference point in RRC information, RRC reconfiguration message, DCI, group DCI, MAC element, or TAC in an RRC connection phase, and send the position coordinate; the second network device may further send the location coordinate of the compensation reference point carried in an RRC reconfiguration message or BWP-related signaling when the terminal performs cell/beam/BWP handover.

By the implementation mode, various implementation modes of the second network equipment for sending the position coordinates of the compensation reference point are provided, and the flexibility of the scheme is improved.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a method for determining a TA, including: the method comprises the steps that ATG network equipment determines position coordinates of an ATG reference point, wherein the position coordinates of the ATG reference point are used for determining a TA (timing advance) used by a terminal for sending signals to the ATG network equipment; and the ATG network equipment sends the position coordinates of the ATG reference point.

In the embodiment of the application, the ATG network equipment sends the position coordinate of the ATG reference point to the terminal, so that the terminal can calculate the TA used by the sending signal according to the position coordinate of the ATG reference point, and the ISI problem during ATG communication can be improved; in addition, the ATG network equipment tells the terminal that the position coordinates of the ATG reference point are not the position coordinates of the ATG network equipment, so that the position privacy of the ATG network equipment can be protected, and the safety of ATG communication is improved.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a TA, including: a terminal receives a first parameter, wherein the first parameter is used for indicating a difference value between a round-trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) and a first delay compensation value, the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation value of a first network device for receiving a signal sent by the terminal, and the difference value is used for determining a Timing Advance (TA) used by the terminal for sending the signal; and the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the first parameter.

In a possible implementation, the first parameter is used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value, and the first parameter is a position coordinate of a compensation reference point, where the difference is determined according to the round trip delay between the compensation reference point and a second network device, and the round trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device is determined according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device.

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises: the terminal receives first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the first parameter is the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point; and the terminal determines the first parameter as the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point according to the first indication information.

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises: the terminal receives second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value; the terminal determines that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value according to the second indication information; wherein the difference is a positive value, the first delay compensation value is smaller than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the feeder link; or, the difference is a negative value, and the first delay compensation value is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on a service link in the NTN.

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises: the terminal receives a second parameter, wherein the second parameter is used for indicating a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by a second network device.

In one possible embodiment, the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device, and includes: the second parameter is a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network equipment; or, the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device.

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises: the terminal receives third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating that the second parameter is the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link; and the terminal determines the second parameter as the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link according to the third indication information.

In one possible implementation, the first network device receives a first parameter, including: the terminal receives a system information block SIB1, other system messages OSI or main system information block MIB and transmits the system information block SIB1, the SIB1, the OSI or the MIB carries a first parameter; or, the terminal receives RRC information, an RRC reconfiguration message, downlink control information DCI, group DCI, a media access control MAC element, or a timing advance command TAC at a radio resource control RRC connection stage, where the RRC information, the RRC reconfiguration message, the DCI, the group DCI, the MAC element, or the TAC carries a first parameter; or, the first network device receives an RRC reconfiguration message or BWP-related signaling when the terminal performs BWP handover, where the RRC reconfiguration message or the BWP-related signaling carries a first parameter.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a TA, including: a terminal receives a position coordinate of a compensation reference point, wherein the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value which is made by the second network equipment aiming at a signal sent by a receiving terminal, the second delay compensation value is used for determining a TA (timing advance) used by the terminal for sending the signal, and the TA is equal to the difference between the round-trip delay of a service link in the NTN and the second delay compensation value; and the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point.

In one possible embodiment, the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device, and includes: the second parameter is a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network equipment; or, the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device, and the second parameter is a position coordinate of a serving link reference point; the common round trip delay of the service link is determined according to the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device, and the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device is determined according to the position coordinate of the service link reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device.

In a possible implementation, the terminal sending the position coordinates of the compensated reference point includes: the terminal receives a system information block SIB1, other system messages OSI or a main system information block MIB, the SIB1, OSI or MIB carrying position coordinates of a compensation reference point; or, the terminal receives RRC information, an RRC reconfiguration message, downlink control information DCI, group DCI, a media access control MAC element, or a timing advance command TAC at an RRC connection stage, where the RRC information, the RRC reconfiguration message, the DCI, the group DCI, the MAC element, or the TAC carries a position coordinate of a compensation reference point; or, when performing BWP handover, the terminal receives an RRC reconfiguration message or BWP-related signaling, where the RRC reconfiguration message or the BWP-related signaling carries the position coordinates of the compensation reference point.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a TA, including: the terminal receives the position coordinates of an air-to-ground ATG reference point; and the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the position coordinate of the ATG reference point.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be the first network device in the first aspect, or an apparatus (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the first network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the first network device. The apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in any one of the possible embodiments of the first aspect and the first aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include: a processing unit, configured to determine a first parameter according to a first delay compensation value, where the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the first network device for a signal transmitted by a receiving terminal, the first parameter is used to indicate a difference between a round-trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network NTN and the first delay compensation value, and the difference is used to determine a TA used by the terminal to transmit the signal; a sending unit, configured to send the first parameter.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be the second network device in the second aspect, or an apparatus (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the second network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the second network device. The apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in any one of the possible embodiments of the second aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include: the processing unit is configured to determine a position coordinate of a compensation reference point according to a second delay compensation value, where the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value performed by the second network device for a signal sent by a receiving terminal; the second delay compensation value is used for determining a TA used by the terminal to send a signal, where the TA is equal to a round trip delay of a serving link in the NTN minus the second delay compensation value; and the transmitting unit is used for transmitting the position coordinates of the compensation reference point.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be the ATG network device in the second aspect, or an apparatus (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the ATG network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the ATG network device. The apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods, operations, steps, and actions described in any one of the possible embodiments of the third aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include: the processing unit is used for determining the position coordinates of an ATG reference point, wherein the position coordinates of the ATG reference point are used for determining a TA (timing advance) used by a terminal for sending signals to the ATG network equipment; and the sending unit is used for sending the position coordinates of the ATG reference point.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be the middle terminal in the fourth aspect, or a device (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the terminal, or a device capable of being used with the terminal. The apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in any one of the possible embodiments of the fourth aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include: a receiving unit, configured to receive a first parameter, where the first parameter is used to indicate a difference between a round-trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network NTN and a first delay compensation value, where the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the first network device for a signal sent by a receiving terminal, and the difference is used to determine a TA used by the terminal to send the signal; and the processing unit is used for determining the TA used for sending the signal according to the first parameter.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be the middle terminal in the fifth aspect, or a device (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the terminal, or a device capable of being used with the terminal. The apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in any one of the possible embodiments of the fifth aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include: a receiving unit, configured to receive a position coordinate of a compensation reference point, where the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value performed by the second network device for a signal sent by a receiving terminal, and the second delay compensation value is used to determine a TA used by the terminal to send the signal, where the TA is equal to a round-trip delay of a service link in the NTN minus the second delay compensation value; and the processing unit is used for determining the TA used for transmitting the signal according to the position coordinates of the compensation reference point.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be the middle terminal in the sixth aspect, or a device (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the terminal, or a device capable of being used with the terminal. The apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in any one of the possible embodiments of the sixth aspect and the sixth aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include: a receiving unit for receiving position coordinates of an air-to-ground ATG reference point; and the processing unit is used for determining the TA used for sending the signal according to the position coordinates of the ATG reference point.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and a communication interface, where the communication interface is used for communicating with other communication devices; the processor is configured to run a set of programs to implement the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth aspects described above and the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth aspects described above.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores computer-readable instructions, and when the computer-readable instructions are executed on a communication device, the method described in the above first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, and any one of the possible implementation manners of the above first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect is implemented.

In a fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor, and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect described above, and the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect described above. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which includes instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as described in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth aspect above and any one of the possible implementations of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth aspect above.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic network architecture of a possible land network communication system to which the present invention is applicable;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for determining TA according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic diagrams of compensation reference points;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a common round trip delay of a service link;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another method for determining TA according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of compensating for round trip delay between a reference point and a second network device;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of another method for determining TA according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of an ATG communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flowchart of another method for determining TA according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an NTN network architecture applicable to the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a flowchart of another method for determining TA according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 to fig. 16 are schematic structural diagrams of signaling sent by a network side to a terminal in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a compensation reference point on a feeder link;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a compensation reference point on a service link;

fig. 19 to 23 are schematic structural diagrams of signaling sent by a network side to a terminal in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 24 is a schematic diagram of a TA rate angle α of a serving link and/or a TA rate angle β of a feeder link;

fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 2500 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 26 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 2600 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 27 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 2700 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 28 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 2800 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 29 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 2900 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 30 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 3000 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

To achieve the fifth generation (5G) communication network global communication coverage, the 3rd generation partnership project (3 GPP) organization is studying to adapt the New Radio (NR) protocol into non-terrestrial networks (NTN). NTN communications include satellite communications, Air To Ground (ATG) communications, and the like. NTN communications have different channel characteristics, such as large transmission delay, large doppler (doppler) frequency offset, etc., compared to terrestrial communications. For example, the round trip delay of geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellite communication (regenerative mode) is 238-270 ms. The round-trip delay of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication (orbit height 1200km, regeneration mode) is 8 ms-20 ms. For an ATG communication scenario, the maximum round-trip delay may also reach 1 ms.

The large round-trip delay may cause inter-symbol interference (ISI) of the uplink signal, which affects the decoding performance of the network side. The terminal sends a random access preamble (preamble) in the initial random access phase, and the network device returns a Random Access Response (RAR). In order to improve the ISI problem, a possible scheme is that the random access preamble is required to have a long cyclic prefix (not less than the round trip delay) to ensure orthogonality between uplink signals of different terminals, but the round trip delay in the NTN communication scenario is too large, and it is difficult for the CP to meet the requirement. Another possible scheme is that when the network device returns a Random Access Response (RAR) to the terminal, a Timing Advance (TA) value indicated in the RAR may be used by the terminal to make the TA a timing advance, thereby reducing the timing difference between the network device and each terminal. However, the range of the TA adjustment value indicated in the RAR by the network device at present is 0-2 ms, and as the subcarrier interval increases, the indication range of the TA in the RAR is also reduced by times, for a satellite communication scenario, the indication range of 2ms at maximum is not enough to indicate the round-trip delay length of the NTN communication scenario, if the TA indication range in the RAR is extended, more signaling overhead will be occupied, for an ATG communication scenario, when the subcarrier interval is greater than 30KHz, the indication range of the TA in the RAR will be less than 1ms, and similarly, the round-trip delay in the ATG communication scenario is not enough to indicate.

Therefore, in the prior art, when a terminal sends a random access preamble, a network device may first notify the terminal of a common timing advance value, and the terminal sends the random access preamble using the common timing advance value, so that the timing difference between the network device and each terminal may be reduced, the timing range of uplink signals of each terminal reaching the network device may be reduced, and further, the requirement for the length of the cyclic prefix of the preamble may be reduced, and the requirement for the TA indication range in the RAR may be reduced.

At present, the scheme for informing the terminal of the common timing advance value by the network device includes the following two schemes:

in the scheme 1, the network equipment broadcasts a common timing advance value, and the terminal directly uses the common timing advance value to send the random access preamble. In the transparent transmission mode (the satellite has no base station processing capacity), the network equipment is a gateway station, and the public timing advance value can be obtained by calculation according to the round-trip delay of the reference point-the satellite-the gateway station; in the regeneration mode (where the satellite has base station processing capability), the network device is a satellite, and the common timing advance value can be calculated from the reference point-satellite round trip delay.

The scheme is simple to implement, and the terminal can be directly used after receiving the public timing advance value. In practical application, however, network equipment often performs a part of delay compensation on a signal sent by a terminal, and the delay that the terminal actually only needs to compensate is only a part of the common timing advance value. The terminal with the positioning function can calculate the round trip delay between the terminal and the satellite, but cannot acquire the round trip delay value of the uncompensated part between the satellite and the gateway station. The terminal with the positioning function cannot calculate an accurate TA according to the common timing advance value, and the terminal still has the ISI problem after the signal is sent.

In scheme 2, the network device broadcasts two common timing advance values, one is a common timing advance value corresponding to a service link (service link) and the other is a common timing advance value corresponding to a feeder link (feeder link). And the terminal carries out timing advance on the service link according to the public timing advance value corresponding to the service link and carries out timing advance on the feed link according to the public timing advance value corresponding to the feed link.

The scheme defines the common timing advance of the two parts of the service link and the feeder link, but if the network equipment performs time delay compensation on a signal sent by the terminal, and the time delay compensation is the round-trip time delay of all the feeder links and part of the service links, the terminal with the positioning function can not calculate accurate TA.

The embodiment of the application provides a method for determining a TA (timing advance), which is used for improving the TA calculation precision of a terminal and improving the ISI (inter-symbol interference) problem. The method may be applied to a fourth Generation (4G) communication system, and may also be applied to a fifth Generation (5G) communication system, Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, machine communication, or to various future communication systems, such as a sixth Generation (6G) communication system.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system. Fig. 1 shows an architecture of a possible land network communication system to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable. The communication system may be composed of a terminal (or called user terminal, user equipment), a first network device, and a second network device. Wherein, a communication link between the first network device and the second network device is a feedback link (or called feeder link); the communication link between the second network device and the terminal is a service link.

The terminal may be a wireless terminal device capable of receiving network device scheduling and indication information. Such as a device for providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user or a handheld device having wireless connection capability or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. Wireless end devices, which may be mobile end devices such as mobile telephones (or "cellular" telephones), mobile phones (or mobile phones), computers, and communication chips, for example, may be portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices that may exchange language and/or data with a Radio Access Network (RAN). The terminal may specifically be a Personal Communication Service (PCS) phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, and the like. The terminal may also include a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a Mobile Station (MS), a remote station (remote station), an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal (remote terminal), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), a subscriber station (subscriber station, SS), a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), a terminal (terminal), a Mobile Terminal (MT), and the like. The wireless terminal device may also be a wearable device and a next generation communication system, e.g. a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network for future evolution, a terminal device in an NR communication system, etc.

The first network device may be a gateway station (or called ground station, earth station, or gateway station) and may be configured to connect the first network device to a core network.

The second network device may be a satellite (or called a satellite base station), a geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite, a non-geostationary orbit (NGEO) medium orbit (MEO) satellite, a low orbit (LEO) satellite, a high altitude communication platform (HAPS), and the like, without limitation.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication mode of the second network device may include a regeneration mode (regenerative) and a transparent transmission mode (transparent).

When the communication mode of the second network device is the regeneration mode, the second network device may be a base station for wireless communication, for example, an evolved nodeb (eNB), a 5G base station (gNB), and the like, and the first network device may transparently transmit signaling between the second network device and the core network.

When the communication mode of the second network equipment is the transparent transmission mode, the first network equipment is used as a base station for wireless communication, and the second network equipment can be used as a relay of the base stations and can transmit signals between the first network equipment and the terminal.

It should be understood that fig. 1 only shows one first network device and one second network device, and in practical use, the architecture of a plurality of first network devices and/or one second network device may be adopted as required. Each second network device may provide services to one or more terminals, each second network device may correspond to one or more first network devices, and each first network device may correspond to one or more second network devices, which is not specifically limited in this application.

Referring to fig. 2, a method for determining a TA provided in this embodiment of the present application may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 1, where a communication mode of the second network device is a transparent transmission mode.

S201, the first network equipment determines a first parameter according to the first time delay compensation value.

The first delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the first network device for a signal sent by the receiving terminal, or the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the first network device for compensating a timing difference caused by a service link round trip delay and a feeder link round trip delay when the signal sent by the receiving terminal is received by the first network device. The delay compensation here may be understood as that the first network device performs a backward delay operation on the receive window when receiving the signal sent by the terminal, and the magnitude of the backward delay of the receive window is the first delay compensation value. The sum of the round trip delay of the serving link and the round trip delay of the feeder link should be greater than or equal to the first delay compensation value. The signal may be any signal sent by the terminal to the first network device, including but not limited to a random access preamble.

The first parameter is used to indicate a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network NTN and the first delay compensation value. One possible way of indicating is that the first parameter is the difference between the round trip delay of the feeder link and the delay compensation value, and another possible way of indicating is that the first parameter is used to determine the difference between the round trip delay of the feeder link and the delay compensation value in the NTN. The difference may be used to determine the TA used by the terminal to transmit the signal.

S202, the first network equipment sends the first parameter, and the terminal receives the first parameter.

Specifically, the first network device may first send the first parameter to the second network device, and then the second network device forwards the first parameter to the terminal.

S203, the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the first parameter.

If the first parameter is the difference, the terminal may determine the TA used for transmitting the signal directly according to the difference and the round trip delay of the serving link, for example, using a value obtained by subtracting the difference from the round trip delay of the serving link as the TA used for transmitting the signal.

If the first parameter is the TA used for determining the terminal to send the signal, the terminal needs to determine the difference value according to the first parameter, and then determine the TA used for sending the signal according to the determined difference value and the round trip delay of the service link.

As an alternative embodiment, when the first parameter is used to determine the difference between the round trip delay of the feeder link in the NTN and the delay compensation value, the first parameter may be the position coordinate of the compensation reference point. Wherein the difference is equal to a round trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device. The terminal device may determine a distance between the compensation reference point and the second network device according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device, and further determine a round-trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device according to the distance between the compensation reference point and the second network device.

As an alternative embodiment, in order to improve the flexibility of the solution, in a specific implementation, the first parameter may be a difference value, or may be a position coordinate of the compensation reference point. The first network device may transmit first indication information to the terminal for indicating that the first parameter is a difference value or a position coordinate of the compensated reference point.

In this way, the terminal device can determine whether the first parameter is the difference or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point according to the first indication information, and further calculate the TA used for sending the signal by using a corresponding algorithm.

As an optional implementation manner, the first network device may further send second indication information to the terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value.

When the first parameter is the difference value, the first network device sends a second indication message to indicate the positive and negative of the sent first parameter each time the first parameter is sent. Wherein the first time delay compensation value is smaller than the round-trip time delay of the feeder link, and the difference value is a positive value; alternatively, the first delay compensation value is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link, and the difference is a negative value.

When the first parameter is the coordinate position of the compensation reference point, the first network device may also send a second indication message to indicate the sign of the difference value, or reflect the sign by the sign of the coordinate. When the first time delay compensation value is smaller than the round-trip time delay of the feed link or the compensation reference point is positioned on the feed link, the difference value is a positive value; or, when the first delay compensation value is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the service link in the NTN, the difference value is a negative value. When the first delay compensation value is equal to the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the second network device, the difference is 0, so that the situation can be classified as a situation where the difference is positive or negative.

See, for example, fig. 3A, for a schematic illustration when the compensation reference point is located on the feeder link. Where a represents the round trip delay value of the serving link, D represents the first delay compensation value, and B represents the difference between the round trip delay of the feeder link and the first delay compensation value. In the case shown in fig. 3A, the difference is a positive value.

For example, referring to fig. 3B, a schematic diagram of the point of reference when located in the service link for compensation. Where a denotes a round trip delay of the service link, the first delay compensation value D ═ D1+ D2, D1 denotes a round trip delay of the feeder link, and D2 denotes a round trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device. B represents the difference between the round trip delay of the feeder link and the first delay compensation value. In the case shown in fig. 3A, B is-D2, and the difference is negative.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information and the second indication information are contained in the same indication information. For example, the first indication information and the second indication information are two different fields of one indication information.

As an alternative implementation, the first network device may also not indicate the sign of the difference, but the terminal and the network device agree in advance that the difference is equal to the round-trip delay of the feeder link minus the first delay compensation value or equal to the first delay compensation value minus the round-trip delay of the feeder link, and agree that the terminal performs addition calculation or subtraction calculation on the received difference after receiving the difference.

As an alternative embodiment, the calculation method of TA includes, but is not limited to, the following three methods: in mode 1, TA is equal to the sum of the round trip delay and the difference of the serving link; mode 2, sum of round trip delay and offset of service link in NTN; mode 3, sum of round trip delay, difference and offset of the service link in NTN. The offset in modes 2 and 3 is related to a Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode or a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode.

In the prior art, the timing advance used by the terminal is TA ═ (N)_TA+N_TAoffset)*16*Ts/2^μAnd T. Wherein N is_TAThe TA adjustment value obtained by the terminal according to the parameter indicated by the first network device (for example, the TA calculated by the terminal according to the first parameter sent by the first network device in this application) is also written as NTA. N is a radical of_TAoffset(also written herein as NTAoffset) indicates the timing interval from uplink to downlink transmission, and is sent to the terminal through SIB information. For FDD mode, NTAoffset is 0; TDD mode, NTAoffset 624. The time interval may allow the base station sufficient time to switch between receiving the uplink signal and transmitting the downlink signal. Ts represents 1/(15e3 × 2048) seconds. Mu is related to the subcarrier spacing, i.e. the subcarrier spacing is 2^μ15 kHz. Therefore, in this scheme, the TA calculated by the terminal according to the first parameter sent by the first network device may be added to a fixed value (e.g., NTAoffset) and then used as the TA used by the terminal to send a signal.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal may be a terminal with a positioning function, or may be a terminal without a positioning function, and this application is not limited thereto.

For a terminal with a positioning function, the terminal can calculate the distance between the terminal and the second network device based on the positioning function, further calculate the round-trip delay between the terminal and the second network device, and use the round-trip delay as the round-trip delay of the service link.

For a terminal without a positioning function, the network device may issue a second parameter, where the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device. In a possible indication manner, the second parameter is a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device; in another possible indication, the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device. Further, such terminals may use the common round trip delay of the service link as the round trip delay of the service link between itself and the second network device. For example, referring to fig. 4, the round trip delay between the second network device and one of the reference points in the second network device coverage beam or cell closest to the second network device location may be selected as the common round trip delay for the serving link.

As an alternative implementation, when the second parameter is used to determine the common round-trip delay of the serving link of the beam or cell covered by the second network device, the second parameter is the position coordinate of the serving link reference point. The common round-trip delay of the service link is determined according to the round-trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network equipment, and the round-trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network equipment is determined according to the position coordinate of the service link reference point and the position coordinate of the second network equipment.

In order to improve the flexibility of the scheme, in a specific implementation, the second parameter may be a common round trip delay of the service link or a position coordinate of the reference point of the service link. For example, in a non-gaze mode of satellite communications, the coverage area of the satellite's beam/cell moves with the movement of the satellite, as does the service link reference point. Under the condition, the distance between the satellite and the service link reference point is unchanged, the round-trip delay is unchanged, the public round-trip delay of the service link is sent to the UE, the position coordinate of the sent service link reference point can be prevented from being frequently changed, and the complexity of the system can be reduced. In the staring mode of satellite communication, the service link reference point is unchanged in the time when the beam/cell continuously covers a certain area, so that sending the position coordinate of the service link reference point to the UE is more beneficial to reducing the complexity of system transmission signaling.

As an alternative implementation, the first network device may send third indication information to the terminal, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second parameter is the common round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link. In this way, the terminal device may determine whether the second parameter is the common round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link according to the third indication information, and further calculate the TA used for transmitting the signal by using an algorithm corresponding to the determined common round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information and/or the second indication information are contained in the same indication information as the third indication information. For example, the first indication information, the second indication information and the third indication information are three different fields of one indication information respectively. In this embodiment, the first network device may send the parameters (including the first parameter/the second parameter) and/or the indication information (including the first indication information/the second indication information/the third indication information) to the terminal in the following manners:

mode 1, the parameters and the indication information are carried in broadcast information such as a System Information Block (SIB) 1, Other System Information (OSI) or a main system information block (MIB), and are sent to the terminal in a unicast, broadcast or multicast manner.

In the method 2, the first network device, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection phase, carries the parameters and the indication information in RRC information, an RRC reconfiguration message, Downlink Control Information (DCI), group DCI, a Media Access Control (MAC) element (element) or a Timing Advance Command (TAC) and transmits the RRC reconfiguration message, the DCI, the MAC element (element) or the TAC to the terminal, or transmits the RRC connection information and the RRC connection information to the UE along with data transmission or in a separately allocated PDSCH bearer.

Mode 3, when the terminal performs a cell/beam/partial Bandwidth (BWP) handover, the first network device may send the parameter and the indication information in an RRC reconfiguration message or a BWP-related signaling.

The above describes a technical scheme when the second network device is in the transparent transmission mode. Next, a technical solution when the second network device is in the regeneration mode will be described.

In the above scheme, since the first parameter is a difference between a round trip delay of the feeder link and a delay compensation value, or the first parameter may be used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of the feeder link and a delay compensation value, the terminal determines, according to the first parameter, that the TA used for transmitting the signal is a TA in consideration of a situation that the first network device performs a part of delay compensation on the signal transmitted by the terminal, and therefore the terminal may calculate a more accurate TA, and may improve the ISI problem.

Referring to fig. 5, another method for determining TA provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 1, where the communication mode of the second network device is a regeneration mode.

S501, the second network equipment determines the position coordinates of a compensation reference point according to the second time delay compensation value;

the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value which is made by the second network equipment aiming at the signal sent by the receiving terminal, and can be equal to the round-trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network equipment; or, the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the second network device to compensate a timing difference caused by a round trip delay of the service link when receiving the signal transmitted by the terminal. The delay compensation here may be understood as that the second network device performs a backward delay operation on the receive window when receiving the signal sent by the terminal, and the magnitude of the backward delay of the receive window is the second delay compensation value. The round trip delay of the serving link should be greater than or equal to the second delay compensation value. The signal may be any signal sent by the terminal to the second network device, including but not limited to a random access preamble.

S502, the second network equipment sends the position coordinates of the compensation reference point, and the terminal receives the position coordinates of the compensation reference point.

S503, the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the position coordinates of the compensation reference point.

Specifically, the terminal calculates the round-trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, so as to obtain a second delay compensation value; and then determining the TA used for transmitting the signal according to the round trip delay of the service link and the second delay compensation value. For example, referring to fig. 6, the position coordinate of the compensation reference point is located on the service link, and the round-trip delay B between the compensation reference point and the second network device represents the delay compensation value that the second network device does with respect to the signal sent by the receiving terminal, then the TA used by the terminal to send the signal may be equal to the round-trip delay of the service link minus the second delay compensation value, i.e., a-B.

Similar to the transparent transmission mode, in the regeneration mode, the terminal may be a terminal with a positioning function or a terminal without a positioning function, and the present application is not limited thereto. For a terminal with a positioning function, the terminal can calculate the distance between the terminal and the second network device based on the positioning function, further calculate the round-trip delay between the terminal and the second network device, and use the round-trip delay as the round-trip delay of the service link. For a terminal without a positioning function, the second network device may issue a second parameter, where the second parameter is a common round-trip delay of a serving link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network device, or the second parameter is used to determine the common round-trip delay of the serving link of the beam or the cell covered by the second network device. Such a terminal may use the common round trip delay of the service link as the round trip delay of the service link between itself and the second network device. The specific implementation manner of the second parameter may refer to the specific implementation manner of the second parameter in the transparent transmission mode, and is not described herein again.

Similarly, in the regeneration mode, the second network device may also send third indication information to the terminal, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the second parameter is a common round trip delay of the service link or a location coordinate of a reference point of the service link.

Similarly, in the regeneration mode, the mode of issuing the parameter or information by the second network device may also adopt three modes in the transparent transmission mode. For example, the second network device sends the location coordinates of the compensation reference point to the terminal in SIB1, OSI or MIB; or the second network equipment loads the position coordinate of the compensation reference point in RRC information, RRC reconfiguration information, DCI, group DCI, MAC element or TAC and sends the position coordinate to the terminal in the RRC connection stage; or, when the terminal performs cell/beam/BWP handover, the second network device carries the position coordinates of the compensation reference point in the RRC reconfiguration message or BWP-related signaling, and sends the location coordinates to the terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the second network device may directly send the second delay compensation value to the terminal, so that the terminal calculates the TA used for sending the signal directly according to the second delay compensation value.

In the above scheme, the second network device issues the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, so that the terminal can calculate the round-trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, and further obtain the second delay compensation value, so that the terminal takes the situation that the network side performs part of delay compensation on the signal sent by the terminal into consideration when calculating the TA according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, and therefore the terminal can calculate more accurate TA, and further improve the ISI problem.

In the embodiment of the present application, it is not necessary for the terminal to distinguish between the reproduction mode and the transparent transmission mode, or the terminal integrates the first network device and the second network device (network side). After the terminal receives parameters (such as position coordinates of a compensation reference point, a difference value, a second delay compensation value, first indication information or second indication information, and the like) from the network side, the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal directly based on the received parameters, that is, the two schemes shown in fig. 5 and fig. 2 may be combined into one scheme.

For example, referring to fig. 7, another method for determining TA provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 1.

S701, the terminal receives a third parameter and second indication information;

for example, the third parameter may be a position coordinate of the compensation reference point (a regeneration mode or a transparent transmission mode), may be a difference value (a transparent transmission mode), and may be a second delay compensation value (a regeneration mode). The second indication information may be used to indicate the sign of the third parameter (difference or second delay compensation value), or to indicate the sign of the difference or second delay compensation value determined based on the third parameter.

S702, the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the third parameter and the second indication information.

Illustratively, if the third parameter is a difference value, the difference value is taken as positive or negative according to the second indication information, and then the sum or difference calculation is performed with the round trip delay of the service link, so as to determine the TA used for sending the signal; if the third parameter is the second time delay compensation value, after the second time delay compensation value is positive or negative according to the second indication information, the second time delay compensation value and the round trip time delay of the service link are subjected to summation or difference calculation, and the TA used by the sending signal is further determined; if the third parameter is the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, after the difference value or the second time delay compensation value is determined according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point, the difference value or the second time delay compensation value is taken to be positive or negative according to the second indication information, and finally the sum or difference calculation is carried out with the round trip delay of the service link, so that the TA used by the sending signal is determined.

It is understood that various possible implementations of the method embodiments shown in fig. 2 or fig. 5 described above may be cited as method embodiments. For example, for a terminal without a positioning function, the location coordinate of the service link reference point may also be received from the network side, and then the round-trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device, that is, the common round-trip delay of the service link, is determined according to the location coordinate of the service link reference point and the location coordinate of the second network device. Such a terminal may use the common round trip delay of the service link as the round trip delay of the service link between itself and the second network device. For a terminal with a positioning function, the distance between the terminal and the second network device can be calculated based on the positioning function, and then the round-trip delay between the terminal and the second network device is calculated and used as the round-trip delay of the service link. For a specific method, reference is made to the relevant parts above, and details are not repeated here.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal does not need to distinguish (or know) whether the second network device is in the transparent transmission mode or the regeneration mode, and the terminal can also calculate the accurate TA, that is, the terminal directly calculates the parameter after receiving the parameter to determine the TA used for sending the signal, so that the difficulty in realizing the terminal side is reduced.

The prior art scheme of broadcasting the common timing advance value by the network device is generally used in a satellite communication system, and for an ATG communication system, because the coverage area (height is generally 6-12km, and diameter is about 100 km and 300km) of the ATG network device is large, the difference between the round trip delay of a terminal at different positions in the coverage area of the ATG network device and the round trip delay of the ATG network device is large, so the scheme of broadcasting the common timing advance value is not suitable for ATG communication.

In view of this, the present application further provides a method for determining a TA, so as to enable a terminal in an ATG network to determine the TA used for sending a signal.

The scheme can be applied to an ATG communication system. For example, fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of an ATG communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application. The ATG communication system comprises air-to-ground ATG network equipment and terminals, wherein the ATG network equipment comprises ground base stations, and the terminals comprise high-altitude mobile terminals such as high-altitude airplanes. Referring to fig. 9, the method includes:

s901, the ATG network equipment determines the position coordinates of the ATG reference point.

Wherein the position coordinates of the ATG reference point may be understood as virtual position coordinates of the ATG network device. The distance between the position coordinate of the ATG reference point and the position coordinate of the ATG network device satisfies a preset range, for example, is smaller than a preset distance value.

S902, the ATG network equipment sends the position coordinates of the ATG reference point to the terminal.

Here, the specific implementation manner of the ATG network device issuing the ATG reference point may refer to the specific implementation manner of the first network device or the second network device issuing the position coordinate of the compensation reference point or the service link reference point, which is not described herein again.

S903, the terminal determines the TA used for sending signals to the ATG network equipment according to the position coordinates of the ATG reference point.

Specifically, the terminal calculates the round-trip delay between the ATG reference point and the terminal according to the position coordinate of the terminal and the position coordinate of the ATG reference point, and determines the round-trip delay as the TA used for sending the signal to the ATG network device, or adds an offset on the basis of the round-trip delay to be used as the TA used for sending the signal to the ATG network device.

In the scheme, the ATG network equipment transmits the position coordinates of the ATG reference point to the terminal, so that the terminal can calculate the TA used for sending the signal according to the position coordinates of the ATG reference point; in addition, the ATG network equipment tells the terminal that the position coordinates of the ATG reference point are not the position coordinates of the ATG network equipment, so that the position privacy of the ATG network equipment can be protected, and the safety of ATG communication is improved.

In specific implementation, both the ATG system and the satellite system belong to the NTN communication system, so the technical scheme in the ATG communication scenario and the technical scheme in the satellite communication scenario may be implemented in combination.

Referring to fig. 10, a schematic diagram of an NTN network architecture suitable for use in the embodiment of the present application, the communication system includes devices (e.g., satellites, gateways, terminals, etc.) in a satellite communication system and devices (e.g., base stations, terminals, etc.) in an ATG communication system.

Referring to fig. 11, another method for determining TA provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 10.

S1101, the network side sends at least one parameter of the position coordinate of the service link reference point (service link reference point position coordinate for short), the position coordinate of the compensation reference point (compensation reference point position coordinate), and the position coordinate of the ATG reference point (ATG reference point position coordinate), and the terminal receives the at least one parameter.

The network side may be any one or more network devices in the NTN system, such as a satellite, a gateway station, or a base station. The terminal can be a ground user terminal (such as a mobile phone, a computer, vehicle-mounted equipment and the like) or a high-altitude user terminal (such as a high-altitude airplane and the like).

Service link reference point: for terminals without positioning function, the terminal calculates the round trip delay between the satellite and the service link reference point to obtain the common round trip delay of the service link (or the timing advance adjustment value of the service link), and can use the common round trip delay as the round trip delay of the service link. The service link reference point can be selected from a certain point in the coverage range of the beam/cell, can be selected from a certain point on the horizontal plane or at a fixed height higher than the horizontal plane according to requirements, and can be determined according to the networking requirements.

Compensation reference point: 1) when the compensation reference point is on the feeder link, the round-trip delay between the gateway station and the compensation reference point is a delay compensation value (i.e. the first delay compensation value in the above) performed by the network side on the uplink signal; 2) when the compensation reference point is in the service link, for the transparent transmission mode, the round trip delay of the gateway station-satellite-compensation reference point is a delay compensation value (i.e. the first delay compensation value in the above) performed by the network side on the uplink signal; for the regeneration mode, the round trip delay of the satellite-compensated reference point is the delay compensation value (i.e. the second delay compensation value in the above) made by the network side for the uplink signal. The compensation reference point may be selected on a service link or a feed link, and may be determined according to a delay compensation value of a signal sent by the network side to the terminal.

ATG reference point: and the terminal obtains the TA used by the terminal according to the terminal position and the round-trip delay of the ATG reference point. The ATG reference point may be selected at any position (which may include the position coordinates of the base station) in the ATG beam or cell coverage area according to the system requirements.

S1102, the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the at least one parameter.

In one possible implementation, the terminal (e.g., airplane, terrestrial mobile terminal) may perform the following calculation according to the received reference point coordinates:

1) calculating the round trip delay value of the service link (or the timing advance adjustment value of the service link) from the satellite position (obtained from ephemeris or satellite coordinates) and the service link reference point: a and A are positive numbers. For ease of description, a may be referred to hereinafter as a serving link common timing advance value.

2) Calculating the round-trip delay value between the satellite and the compensation reference point according to the satellite position and the compensation reference point: b, if the compensation reference point is on the feeder link, then B is a positive value; b is a negative value if the compensated reference point is on the serving link; the positive or negative B value may be indicated to the UE by the second indication information described above.

If the satellite is in a transparent transmission mode, B is the difference value between the round-trip delay of the feed link and a delay compensation value of the satellite for a signal sent by the terminal; if the satellite is in the regeneration mode, B is a negative value of the delay compensation value of the satellite for the signal transmitted by the terminal.

For convenience of description, B may be hereinafter referred to as a common compensation timing advance value.

3) Calculating the round-trip time delay value between the terminal and the ATG reference point according to the terminal position and the ATG reference point: c and C are positive numbers.

In another possible implementation, the network side may also send A, B or C directly, that is, A, B or C may be included in at least one parameter. For example, the network side issues B without issuing the compensation reference point coordinates.

Further, the terminal may select different parameters from A, B, C according to different communication scenarios (such as ATG communication, satellite communication, etc.) to calculate the TA used when transmitting the signal (such as the random access preamble):

for example, when the terminal is in a satellite communication scenario:

1) if the terminal has the positioning function, the terminal can calculate the timing advance TA _ cal of the service link according to the ephemeris, and then calculate TA according to TA _ cal and B, such as: TA is TA _ cal + B.

2) If the terminal does not have the positioning function, the terminal can calculate TA according to A and B, such as: TA is a + B.

For example, when the terminal is in an ATG communication scenario:

the terminal may calculate TA from C, such as: TA ═ C.

The specific implementation of the method shown in fig. 11 is described in detail below by means of several specific embodiments.

Example 1

The base station may send the reference point coordinates to the terminal in a broadcast or multicast or unicast manner. Referring to fig. 12, a schematic diagram of a possible reference point coordinate signaling provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown.

The reference point coordinates may be in the same coordinate system as the satellite or relative coordinates, for example, the service link reference point coordinates and the compensation reference point coordinates may be coordinates relative to the satellite coordinate position, that is, the satellite is used as the origin of coordinates.

The compensation reference point coordinate parameter may carry a positive or negative indication bit for indicating whether the round-trip time delay between the second network device and the compensation reference point is a positive value or a negative value. For example, a positive or negative indicator bit 0 indicates a negative value and 1 indicates a positive value. And calculating the round-trip delay of x seconds by using the compensation reference point coordinates and the satellite coordinates, and setting the positive indicator bit and the negative indicator bit to be 0, wherein B is-x calculated in the scheme.

If the satellite communication scene is adopted, the network side can further execute the following operations:

1) the ATG reference point coordinates may be zeroed or not sent.

2) Whether to send the compensation reference point coordinate can be selected according to whether the network side compensates the signal sent by the terminal or not, or can be set to zero. For example, if the network side does not compensate for the delay, the compensation reference point coordinate may not be sent, or the compensation reference point coordinate may be sent with a zero.

3) Whether to transmit the compensated reference point coordinates may be selected according to whether the satellite communication is in the transparent transmission mode or the reproduction mode. For example, when the satellite is in the transparent transmission mode, even if the network side does not perform delay compensation on the signal transmitted by the terminal, the compensation reference point coordinate needs to be transmitted to indicate the round trip delay value of the feeder link to the terminal. At this time, the compensation reference point coordinate may be a position coordinate of the gateway station, the terminal may calculate a round trip delay value of the feeder link according to the compensation reference point coordinate and the satellite coordinate, and the round trip delay value of the joint service link may obtain a complete round trip delay of the communication link, which is used as a timing advance adjustment value for the terminal to transmit a signal. When the satellite works in the regeneration mode, if the network side does not perform delay compensation on the signal transmitted by the terminal, the compensation reference point coordinate may not be transmitted.

If the communication scenario is an ATG communication scenario, the network side may further perform the following operations:

1) the serving link reference point coordinates and the compensating reference point coordinates may be zeroed or not transmitted.

2) If the network side performs delay compensation on the signal sent by the terminal in the ATG communication scene, a compensation reference point needs to be sent to inform the terminal of a delay compensation value performed by the network side on the signal sent by the terminal. At this time, the service link reference point coordinates are set to zero, or the service link reference point coordinates are not transmitted.

Of course, both satellite communication scenarios and ATG communication scenarios may exist simultaneously. If both the satellite communication scenario and the ATG communication scenario exist, the network side and the terminal may simultaneously perform operations performed by the network side and the terminal in the ATG communication scenario and the ATG communication scenario, and the specific implementation method may refer to the satellite communication scenario and the ATG communication scenario respectively, which is not described herein again.

In one possible design, the minimum coordinate granularity or coordinate unit of the service link reference point coordinate, the compensation reference point coordinate, and the ATG reference point coordinate is in m as a basic unit. In another possible design, a combination of several length units may be used jointly, for example a combination of km and m may be used to save signaling overhead. If only a single length unit is used to represent the service link reference point three-dimensional coordinate as (10300m, 9600m, 10070m), then 10030,9600,10070 three digits need to be represented, requiring 42 bits. If a length unit combination of km and m is used, which can be expressed as (10km +300m, 9km +600m, 10km +70m), 10,300,9,600,10,70 digits need to be transmitted, occupying 39 bits. The signaling overhead can be saved by using multiple length unit combinations.

In order to further save signaling overhead, in one possible design, the reference point coordinates may be transmitted with the satellite orbital height H as the reference length. For example, the reference point coordinates sent by the network side to the terminal are (a, b, c), and the terminal may calculate the used reference point coordinates according to (a + H, b + H, c + H). In one possible design, the reference point coordinates may be transmitted with the satellite coordinates as the reference point. For example, the coordinates of the satellite are (x, y, z), and the coordinates of the reference point transmitted from the network side to the terminal are (a, b, c). The terminal may calculate the coordinates of the reference point used from (x + a, y + b, z + c).

The reference point coordinate signaling format provided by this embodiment can be compatible with satellite communication and ATG communication scenarios, and meanwhile, it supports a terminal with a positioning function and a terminal without a positioning function to determine a TA, so that signaling bits can be saved.

Example 2

Referring to fig. 13, a schematic diagram of another possible reference point coordinate signaling provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown. The difference from example 1 is: a satellite communication/ATG communication scene indicator bit is added to the signaling shown in fig. 13 to indicate which scene the reference point coordinates sent by the network side are applicable to. For example, the signaling indicating to the terminal that the transmission is service link reference point coordinates, compensation reference point coordinates, or ATG reference point coordinates, or other combinations.

Through the embodiment, the same coordinate signaling bit can be multiplexed by satellite communication and ATG communication, and the signaling overhead is reduced.

Example 3

Unlike embodiment 1 or embodiment 2 above, this embodiment replaces some reference point coordinate/s with a common timing advance value, i.e. the common timing advance and reference point coordinates are used jointly. (for ease of description, the serving link common timing advance value, the common compensation timing advance value, and the ATG common timing advance value may be collectively referred to as a common timing advance value, and the serving link reference point, the compensation reference point coordinates, and the coordinates of the ATG reference point coordinates may be referred to as reference point coordinates.)

For example, referring to fig. 14A and 14B, the network side replaces the service link reference point coordinates with the service link common timing advance value (i.e., the round trip delay of the service link).

For example, referring to fig. 14A, 14C, the compensated reference point coordinates are replaced with a common compensated timing advance value (i.e., the round trip delay between the compensated reference point and the satellite).

For example, referring to fig. 14D, ATG reference point coordinates are replaced with ATG common timing advance values (i.e., common round trip delays in the ATG service area).

Wherein, the relationship between the common compensation timing advance value and the compensation reference point may be: the common compensated timing advance value is equal to a round-trip delay value between the satellite position and the compensated reference point position. 1) When the compensation reference point is on the feeder link, the common compensation timing advance value is used with a positive value, corresponding to the positive and negative indicator bits in fig. 14D being positive. 2) When the backoff reference point is in the service link, the common backoff timing advance value is used after being negative, corresponding to the positive and negative indicator bits in fig. 14D.

It should be noted that if the compensation reference point is always on the feeder link or the network side compensates the delay of the signal transmitted by the terminal by no more than the round trip delay of the feeder link, the round trip delay or the common compensation timing advance value calculated by the compensation reference point used will always be a positive value, so the positive and negative indication bits of the compensation reference point or the common compensation timing advance value can also be omitted, i.e. a positive value by default. Or, if the compensation reference point is always on the service link or the network side compensates the signal delay sent by the terminal for a value not less than the round trip delay of the feeder link, the network side and the terminal are well defined, and the round trip delay or the common compensation timing advance value calculated by the compensation reference point used by the terminal is always a negative value, so that positive and negative indication bits of the compensation reference point or the common compensation timing advance value can be omitted, that is, the default is a negative value. This embodiment method is applicable to all embodiments herein.

In an alternative embodiment, the serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate may be used in combination with the common compensated timing advance value/compensated reference point coordinate for scenarios where the transmission of the ATG reference point is not required.

Referring to fig. 14E, in non-gaze communications, the use of a serving link common timing advance value in combination with a common compensated timing advance value/compensated reference point coordinate is more beneficial for reducing the complexity of system transmission signaling. While in gaze mode, the use of the service link reference point coordinates in combination with the common backoff timing advance value/backoff reference point coordinates is more beneficial in reducing the complexity of the system transmission signaling. This is because in gaze mode, the serving link reference point is constant and the serving link reference point coordinates sent by the network side to the terminal do not change for the time period that the beam/cell continues to cover a certain area. For the selection of using the common compensation timing advance value or compensating the reference point coordinate, it is necessary to perform compensation according to whether the network side is performing compensation on the signal delay sent by the terminal and whether the compensation value is fixed, which is not described herein again.

In summary, the service link common timing advance value/service link reference point coordinate and the common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinate are reasonably collocated, so that the complexity of signaling sent by the system can be reduced.

In an alternative embodiment, the ATG reference point coordinates/ATG common timing advance value may be optionally zeroed or not transmitted in case of a satellite communication scenario. In the case of an ATG communication scenario, the serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinates and/or the common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinates may be zeroed or not transmitted.

In an alternative embodiment, if the network side does not transmit the compensation reference point coordinates/service link reference point coordinates, it may be assumed that the fallback to the default coordinates is, for example, the coordinates of the satellite, that is, the common compensation timing advance value is 0.

In an alternative embodiment, the serving link common timing advance value and the common backoff timing advance value may be represented by a combination of different time units. For example, assuming a serving link common timing advance value of 20.77ms, when only the ms unit dimension is used, 12 bits are required for representation. If the frame length (10 ms) and subframe length (1 ms) dimensions are used for joint representation: 2 frame length +0.77 subframe length. The network side only needs 9 bits to represent, so that the signaling overhead can be saved. Similarly, the basic time units Ts and multiples of Ts of LTE can be used for joint representation, for example: a is Ts + b is Ts 10^3, and only a and b need to be sent to the terminal.

In this embodiment, the terminal replaces the transmission reference point coordinates with the common timing advance value. For some scenarios, replacing the reference point coordinates with a common timing advance value can reduce the complexity of signaling and updating. For example, in a non-gaze mode of satellite communications, the coverage area of a beam/cell moves with the movement of the satellite, as does the service link reference point. In this case, the distance between the satellite and the reference point is constant, and the round trip delay is constant. In this case, the service link reference point coordinate is replaced by the service link common timing advance value and sent to the terminal, so that frequent transformation of the sent service link reference point coordinate can be avoided, and the system complexity is reduced.

Example 4

In this embodiment, on the basis of embodiment 3, a satellite communication/ATG communication scene indication bit is added to indicate a scene to which the reference point coordinates transmitted by the network side are applicable.

For example, referring to fig. 15A and 15B, the communication scenario indication bit indicates to the terminal whether the transmitted signaling is service link reference point coordinates, common backoff timing advance value, or ATG reference point coordinates, or other combinations.

Through the embodiment, the same signaling bit can be multiplexed by satellite communication and ATG communication, and the signaling overhead of the whole NTN system can be reduced.

Example 5

Referring to fig. 15C, in this embodiment, on the basis of embodiment 3, an indication bit is added in the serving link common timing advance value/reference point coordinate signaling to indicate whether the signaling represents the serving link common timing advance value or the serving link reference point coordinate value. Therefore, the system can decide whether to inform the terminal in the form of a common timing advance value or in the form of reference point coordinates according to whether the satellite is in a staring mode or not and whether the network side performs delay compensation on the signal sent by the terminal, and the flexibility of the system can be improved.

Similarly, an indication bit may be added to the common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinate signaling to indicate whether the signaling represents the common compensation timing advance value or the compensation reference point coordinate value. Flexibility is provided for network side configuration signaling.

Referring to fig. 15D, the serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate and common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinate combination may be transmitted separately for scenarios where the ATG reference point does not need to be transmitted.

Example 6

In this embodiment, on the basis of embodiment 5, a satellite communication/ATG communication scene indication bit is added to indicate a scene to which the reference point coordinates transmitted by the network side are applicable.

For example, referring to fig. 16, the signaling that the communication scenario indication bit indicates to the terminal to transmit may be a serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate, a common backoff timing advance value/backoff reference point coordinate, or an ATG reference point coordinate, or other combinations.

Through the embodiment, the same signaling bit can be multiplexed in the satellite communication scene and the ATG communication scene, and the signaling overhead can be reduced.

Example 7

The present embodiment provides that the network side indicates to the terminal the positive or negative of the common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinate by means of implicit indication (i.e. to indicate whether a positive value or a negative value is used when using the partial value).

In an alternative embodiment, the compensated reference point coordinates are expressed in relative coordinates. For example, the compensation reference point coordinates are expressed in coordinates relative to the satellite position, i.e., with the satellite as the origin of the coordinate system. A positive value is indicated if the compensated reference point coordinates are above the satellite and a negative value if below the satellite.

In another alternative embodiment, the positive and negative values of a certain dimension in the three-dimensional coordinates of the compensation reference point are used to indicate whether the round-trip time delay calculated by using the compensation reference point is a positive value or a negative value. For example, the coordinates of the compensation reference point sent by the network side to the terminal are (-501km,580km,520km), the round-trip delay time calculated by the network side and the terminal is represented by the positive and negative of the first dimension value of the coordinate point in a convention manner, and then the round-trip delay time calculated by the terminal according to the coordinates of the reference point (-501km,580km,520km) is a negative value.

Through the embodiment, the network side can indicate the positive and negative of the common compensation timing advance value/the compensation reference point coordinate without additionally increasing signaling, and the signaling overhead can be saved.

Example 8

For a terminal with a positioning function in the NTN system, a signaling sent to the terminal by the network side may not include a serving link common compensation timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate, so as to save unnecessary signaling overhead.

For example, the signaling sent by the network side to the terminal only needs to have a common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinate parameter (including positive and negative indication bits). Or, the signaling sent by the network side to the terminal only needs to have the common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinate parameter (including positive and negative indication bits), and the ATG reference point coordinate.

Since the terminal with the positioning function can calculate the round trip delay of the service link according to the position of the terminal and the position of the satellite (the terminal can acquire the position of the satellite from the ephemeris information), the common timing advance value of the service link/the common round trip delay value of the service link indicated by the reference point coordinate of the service link are not required. And the terminal or the satellite with the positioning function can not acquire the round-trip delay of the feeder link according to the ephemeris information. If the network side performs propagation delay compensation on the signal sent by the terminal, the terminal cannot obtain the delay compensation value of the network side. Therefore, the terminal with the positioning function cannot acquire complete propagation delay information, such as feeder link propagation delay and a propagation delay compensation value on the network side, only through the own position information and the position information of the satellite.

As shown in fig. 17, if the compensation value of the propagation delay compensation made by the network side for the signal transmitted by the terminal is smaller than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is on the feeder link, then the common compensation timing advance value can be used to represent the residual propagation delay value after the network side compensated delay is subtracted from the feeder link. For example, if the propagation round trip delay of the feeder link is a (i.e., the signal propagation round trip delay between the satellite and the gateway station is a), and the propagation delay compensation value of the network side for the feeder link is b (i.e., the round trip delay between the gateway station and the compensation reference point is b), then the common compensation timing advance value sent by the network side to the terminal is equal to a-b (i.e., the round trip delay between the satellite and the compensation reference point is a-b). Optionally, the network side may send the common compensated timing advance value of (a-b)/2 to the terminal (signaling overhead may be saved), that is, the propagation delay value remaining after the unidirectional propagation delay compensated by the network side is subtracted from the unidirectional propagation delay of the feeder link. When the terminal receives the common backoff timing advance value of (a-b)/2, it is multiplied by 2 and then used. The positive and negative indicator bits of the common compensation timing advance value at this time indicate a positive sign, i.e., indicate that the subsequent operation is an adding operation. The terminal then adds the common compensated timing advance value (i.e., a value equal to a-b) to the serving link round trip delay value calculated by the terminal to obtain a TA that makes timing advance adjustments to the signal sent by the terminal. Similarly, the network side can send the compensation reference point coordinates, and the positive and negative indication bits indicate the positive sign. And the terminal calculates the round-trip delay between the satellite position and the reference point position according to the satellite position and the reference point position, and then adds the calculated round-trip delay value of the service link with the public compensation timing advance value according to the positive sign indicated by the positive and negative indication bits to obtain the TA which can be used by the terminal.

As shown in fig. 18, when the compensation value of the propagation delay compensation performed by the network side on the signal transmitted by the terminal is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point on the service link, that is, the network side compensates the propagation round trip delay of the feeder link and the partial propagation round trip delay of the service link (round trip delay of the gateway-satellite-compensation reference point), the common compensation timing advance value may be used to indicate that the network side compensates the partial propagation round trip delay of the service link (that is, the signal propagation round trip delay value between the satellite and the compensation reference point). For example, assume that the round trip delay between the satellite and the compensation reference point is d, i.e., the common compensation timing advance value is d. Or in order to save signaling overhead, the common compensation timing advance value is d/2, and the terminal multiplies 2 after receiving d/2 to perform subsequent operation. At this time, the positive and negative indicating bits of the common compensation timing advance value indicate a negative sign, i.e., an operation indicating that the subsequent operation is subtraction. Then, the terminal subtracts the calculated round trip delay value of the service link from the common compensation timing advance value (i.e. the value equal to d) to obtain the TA for adjusting the timing advance of the signal transmitted by the terminal. Similarly, the network side can send the compensation reference point coordinates, and the positive and negative indication bits indicate the negative sign. And the terminal calculates the round-trip delay between the satellite position and the reference point position according to the satellite position, and then subtracts the calculated round-trip delay value of the service link and the public compensation timing advance value according to the negative sign indicated by the positive and negative indication bits to obtain the TA which can be used by the terminal.

Example 9

As described in embodiments 2, 4, and 6, when the network side indicates, by the indicator bit, that the information included in the signaling is the service link reference point coordinate or the service link common timing advance value or the compensation reference point coordinate or the common compensation timing advance value or the ATG reference point coordinate, the network side may inform the terminal reference point coordinate and the content of the timing advance signaling in a table lookup manner.

As an example, table 1 shows that different reference point coordinates and timing advance signaling are associated with different index numbers to form content. The network side can send index number to the terminal, the terminal can search the reference point coordinate and the timing advance signaling through the index number, and the signaling is decoded to obtain corresponding data. For example, when the terminal receives index number 2, it indicates that the signaling received by the terminal includes the serving link common timing advance value, the offset reference point coordinate value, and the ATG reference point coordinate value. For example, when the terminal receives the index number 14, it indicates that the signaling received by the terminal includes the serving link common timing advance value and the backoff reference point coordinates.

Table 1 reference point coordinates, timing advance signalling composition table 1

As an example, referring to table 2, for the case that the terminal does not need the ATG reference point coordinates, the table may be further reduced, and signaling overhead of transmitting the index number may be saved. For example, when the terminal receives index number 3, it indicates that the signaling received by the terminal includes the service link reference point coordinates, the common backoff timing advance value.

Table 2 reference point coordinates, timing advance signalling composition table 2

It should be noted that if the compensation reference point is always on the feeder link or the network side compensates the delay of the signal transmitted by the terminal by no more than the round trip delay of the feeder link, the round trip delay or the common compensation timing advance value calculated by the compensation reference point used will always be a positive value, so the positive and negative indication bits of the compensation reference point or the common compensation timing advance value can also be omitted, i.e. a positive value by default. Or, if the compensation reference point is always on the service link or the network side compensates the signal delay sent by the terminal by not less than the round trip delay of the feeder link, the network side and the terminal are well defined, and the round trip delay or the common compensation timing advance value calculated by the compensation reference point used by the terminal is always a negative value. Therefore, positive and negative indicator bits of the compensation reference point or the common compensation timing advance value may also be omitted, i.e. negative values by default.

As described in embodiment 8, for a terminal with a positioning function, only the common compensation timing advance value or the compensation reference point coordinate parameter needs to be sent to the terminal. Correspondingly, referring to table 3, if the terminal receives index number 1, it indicates that the signaling received by the terminal is the compensation reference point coordinate.

Table 3 reference point coordinates, timing advance signalling composition table 3

Index number	Compensating reference point coordinates	Common compensation timing advance value
			1	√	×
2	×	√

As an optional implementation manner, the index numbers in table 1, table 2, or table 3 may be sent to the terminal through SIB signaling or RRC signaling, that is, the reference point or the timing advance value may be configured to the terminal through SIB signaling or RRC signaling.

In the embodiment, the network side can inform the terminal of the reference point coordinates and the composition content of the timing advance signaling in a table look-up mode, so that the signaling overhead can be saved.

Example 10

This embodiment describes the types of signaling carrying the parameters (such as reference point coordinates, common timing advance values, etc.) involved in embodiments 1-9 above.

Mode 1, the network device may carry parameters such as the serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate, the common backoff timing advance value/backoff reference point coordinate, the ATG reference point coordinate, etc. of the target cell/beam in the broadcast information of SIB1, OSI, MIB, etc., and the network device transmits the parameters to the terminal in unicast, broadcast, or multicast.

Mode 2, if the parameter is sent in the RRC connection phase, the network device may carry the parameter in at least one of RRC information, rrcreeconfiguration message, DCI, group DCI, MAC element, TAC, or send the parameter to the terminal along with data transmission or in a separately allocated PDSCH bearer.

Mode 2, when the terminal performs cell/beam/BWP handover, the network device may send these parameters to the terminal in an RRC Reconfiguration message or BWP related signaling.

For example, when an inter-beam or BWP handover occurs:

if the BWP is in the initial BWP stage, parameters are issued in RRC signaling corresponding to the initial BWP. The signaling format may be as follows:

the "referencepointcoordinatgroup" field may be used for the parameters related in embodiments 1 to 9, including reference point coordinates, common timing advance values, and the like. The "referencepointcoordinategrouplit" field indicates specific values of reference point coordinates, common timing advance values, and the like.

If the parameters are issued in the BWP downlink common (BWP-DownlinkCommon) signaling or the BWP uplink common (BWP-uplinkccommon) signaling in other non-initial BWP phases, the signaling format issued in the non-initial BWP phase may be as follows:

The specific format of the "referencepointcodegrouplist" field referred to in the above signaling is as follows (it should be understood that the following is only an example and is not a limitation, and other different field formats may also occur according to different signaling combinations listed in the embodiments of the present application):

wherein, the 'ServiceLinkReferencePoint' field represents a service link reference point coordinate value, and the 'CompensatedReferencePoint' field represents a compensation reference point coordinate value.

Or,

wherein the "atgreffercepoint" field represents a coordinate value of the ATG reference point.

Or,

wherein the "servicelinkmontimingtadvance" field indicates a service link common timing advance value.

Or,

ReferencePointCoordinateGroupList::＝SEQUENCE{

ServiceLinkTimingValue BIT STRING(SIZE(n)),

CompensatedTimingValue BIT STRING(SIZE(n)),}

the field of the "ServiceLinkTimingValue" represents a timing advance value or a reference point coordinate, and a 1-bit indicator bit in the "ServiceLinkTimingValue" indicates whether the parameter is a service link common timing advance value or a service link reference point coordinate value, and simultaneously carries the corresponding service link common timing advance value/service link reference point coordinate. Similarly, the "compensated timing advance value" field indicates the common compensation timing advance value or compensation reference point coordinates, with a 1-bit indicator bit in the "compensated timing advance value" indicating whether the parameter is a common compensation timing advance value or a compensation reference point coordinate value, and simultaneously carries the corresponding common compensation timing advance value/compensation reference point coordinates.

It should be understood that different beams or cells may be distinguished in a protocol according to BWP, Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI), or Synchronization Signal Block (SSB); or in other words, the beam or cell may be indicated according to BWP, TCI or SSB. For example, the handover of the beam or the cell may be indicated by the handover of BWP, TCI or SSB between the terminal and the network device, so that the actual handover of BWP, TCI or SSB may be performed for the terminal and/or the network device. Furthermore, the beams or cells described in this application may also be replaced by BWP, TCI or SSB.

Example 11

This embodiment introduces a handover scenario between different beams or BWPs, and sends a serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate value, a common offset timing advance value/offset reference point coordinate value, and an ATG reference point coordinate value of a target cell/beam to a terminal through BWP downlink specific (BWP-downlink specified) signaling and BWP uplink specific (BWP-uplink specified) signaling.

The signaling format may be as follows:

Example 12

The measurement procedure may be triggered before BWP or beam or cell handover is initiated. Therefore, in this embodiment, the network-side delay compensation value of the target BWP or the beam or the cell is issued through the corresponding RRC signaling in the neighbor measurement configuration and the handover.

For example, the network side issues the network side delay compensation value of the target BWP or the beam or the cell through the measurement signaling "MeasConfig" in the RRC, and the signaling format of the issuance may be as follows:

According to the handover signaling flow, a serving link common timing advance value/serving link reference point coordinate value, a common backoff timing advance value/backoff reference point coordinate value, and an ATG reference point coordinate value of a target BWP or beam or cell are issued in the serving BWP or beam or cell through an RRC registration message (RRCReconfiguration), where a specific signaling format is as follows:

wherein the "rrcReconfiguration" field indicates RRC registration signaling. The specific format of the "RRCReconfiguration-IEs" field may be as follows:

example 13

The embodiment describes that when the ATG reference point coordinates need to be sent, the ATG reference point coordinates may be sent to the terminal instead of the satellite position coordinates (or part of ephemeris information), so that signaling overhead may be saved.

In the NTN satellite communication, a network side sends satellite position coordinates or ephemeris information to a terminal, so that when the terminal is switched to an ATG communication scene, the ATG reference point coordinates can be replaced by the satellite position coordinates or the ephemeris information.

As shown in fig. 19, the ATG reference point coordinates/satellite position coordinates occupy the same or partially the same signaling bits and may be transmitted together with or separately from other reference point coordinates, common timing advance values (serving link reference point coordinates or serving link common timing advance values or compensated reference point coordinates or common compensated timing advance values), and the like.

Therefore, the terminal with the positioning function can still calculate the round-trip delay between the terminal and the base station by utilizing the ATG reference point coordinates and the position coordinates of the terminal, and determine the timing advance adjusting value.

Further, it may use 1 bit to indicate to the terminal whether the network side sends ATG reference point coordinate information or satellite position coordinate/ephemeris information to the terminal, as shown in fig. 20.

Example 14

This embodiment describes a TA calculation method.

In the prior art, the timing advance used by the terminal is TA ═ (N)_TA+N_TAoffset)*16*Ts/2^μ. Wherein N is_TAThe terminal obtains the TA adjustment value according to the parameters indicated by the network side, for example, the terminal calculates the TA adjustment value according to the public timing advance value and/or the reference point coordinate and/or the position information of the terminal sent by the network side in the patent of the present invention. N is a radical of_TAoffsetIndicates a timing interval from uplink to downlink transmission, and transmits the timing interval to the terminal through SIB information. For FDD mode, NT_Aoffset0; TDD mode, N_TAoffset624. The time interval may allow the base station sufficient time to switch between receiving the uplink signal and transmitting the downlink signal. Ts represents 1/(15e3 × 2048) seconds. Mu is related to the subcarrier spacing, i.e. the subcarrier spacing is 2^μ·15kHz。

In this embodiment, the TA adjustment value calculated by the terminal according to the common timing advance value and/or the reference point coordinate and/or the location information of the terminal sent by the network side may be associated with a fixed value (e.g., N)_TAoffset) The sum is then used to obtain the timing advance that the terminal can use.

In the embodiment of the present application, the fixed value includes, but is not limited to, the following three implementations:

way one, the fixed value is the offset.

The offset may specifically be related to one or more of the following factors:

1) duplex modes, including two, Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode, Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode;

2) a position error or a positioning error of a second network device (e.g., a satellite, etc.);

it should be understood that the positioning error and the position error are only different expressions and have the same meaning.

3) Position error or positioning error of the terminal.

Of course, the above three factors are merely examples and not limitations, and other factors may be related to practical applications.

In one possible design, the network side may send an offset (e.g., a time offset) to the UE indicating the position error or the quotient of the position error and the speed of light of the second network device, i.e., the position error/the speed of light, or the position error or the quotient of the position error and the speed of light of the second network device with an offset of 2 times, i.e., 2 × the position error/the speed of light.

It is understood that the speed of light refers to the speed of propagation of light waves in air or outer space, e.g. 3 x 10 is often used⁸。

Optionally, the offset may be a positive value, a negative value, or 0, that is, the offset sent by the network side to the terminal may be: plus (positioning error/light velocity), or- (positioning error/light velocity), or plus (2 positioning error/light velocity), or- (2 positioning error/light velocity).

When it is necessary to avoid ISI due to an excessively large TA value obtained by the terminal, a negative value may be used for the offset; the offset may use a positive value when it is desired to avoid that the TA value is too small and the terminal signal reaches the network device too late. Or, the network side may agree with the terminal that the transmitted offset is a positive value, and after receiving the offset, the terminal may use the offset after taking a negative value.

The offset may be in units of nanoseconds (ns), microseconds (us), milliseconds (ms), 16 × Ts/2^μAnd the embodiment of the application is not limited.

It is understood that the position error or the positioning error of the second network device may be understood as a deviation distance between the position coordinates of the second network device (the position coordinates may be represented in ephemeris information or in three-dimensional coordinates) and the actual position of the second network device due to perturbation effects. The position error or positioning error may be the maximum deviation distance possible between the position coordinates of the second network device and the actual position of the second network device. The position error or positioning error may also be referred to as ephemeris error.

It can be understood that the position error or the positioning error of the terminal indicates a position deviation occurring when the terminal uses a positioning system or a positioning method to position its own position, that is, a deviation distance or a possible maximum deviation distance between a terminal position coordinate obtained by positioning and an actual position coordinate.

Understandably, the network side and the terminal can appoint the network side to send a positive offset to the terminal, and the terminal subtracts the calculated TA adjusting value from the offset to obtain the timing advance which can be used by the terminal; equivalently, the network side sends a negative offset to the terminal, and the terminal adds the calculated TA adjustment value to the offset to obtain the timing advance which can be used by the terminal.

In summary, the fixed value may be an offset, and the network side may send/configure the offset to the terminal, and the terminal adds or subtracts the calculated TA adjustment value to the offset to obtain the timing advance that can be used by the terminal. The TA adjustment value calculated by the terminal may be the sum of the round trip delay of the serving link and the common compensated timing advance value (or difference).

In another possible design, the network side may send a value of a position error or a positioning error that enables an offset to be determined to the UE.

The position error or positioning error value here may be a position error or value of the second network device (e.g., satellite, etc.) and/or a position error of the terminal. Position _ err, which may be in meters, is used to indicate a possible position error of the second network device.

And after the terminal receives the position _ err, calculating the offset according to the position _ err.

For example, the terminal device may calculate a value of an offset to be used by the terminal according to any one of the following manners:

1) -2 position _ err/speed of light, i.e. -the quotient of 2 position _ err and the speed of light;

2) plus 2 position _ err/speed of light, quotient of +2 position _ err and speed of light;

3) position _ err/speed of light, i.e., the quotient of position _ err and speed of light;

4) position _ err/speed of light, i.e. -the quotient of position _ err and speed of light.

Similarly, negative values may be used if ISI is to be avoided, and positive values may be used if TA is to be avoided. Finally, the terminal may add or subtract the calculated TA adjustment value to the offset (e.g., -2 × position _ err/speed of light) to obtain a timing advance that the terminal may use. The TA adjustment value calculated by the terminal may be the sum of the round trip delay of the serving link and the common compensated timing advance value (or the difference).

It is noted that the offset may include one or more of a TDD mode or FDD mode related portion, a position error portion of the second network device, and a position error portion of the terminal. If the offset includes both the TDD mode or FDD mode related part and the position error part of the second network device and/or the position error part of the terminal, the network side may combine (e.g., add/subtract) these parts and then send them to the terminal or send them to the terminal separately. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the combined offset and can directly use the offset; or the terminal receives the above-mentioned parts, and then combines (adds/subtracts) the above-mentioned parts to use as the final offset. The magnitude of the offset can be agreed by a protocol, or sent/configured to the terminal by the network side.

In the second mode, the fixed value is a numerical offset.

As described above (e.g., embodiment 3), the network side sends the terminal a common compensated timing advance value (i.e., round trip delay value between the satellite and the compensated reference point) in place of the position coordinates of the transmitted compensated reference point. When the compensation reference point is on the feeder link, the common compensation timing advance value needs to be used after taking a positive value, and when the compensation reference point is on the service link, the common compensation timing advance value needs to be used after taking a negative value.

In order to improve the flexibility of the scheme, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal side may not know whether the compensation reference point is in the feeder link or the service link, but the network side sends a common timing parameter for the terminal to determine the common compensation timing advance value to the terminal. The network side may send/configure the value offset to the terminal. After receiving the common timing parameter, the terminal subtracts or adds the common timing parameter from the value offset to obtain a common compensation timing advance value used by the terminal, namely:

common compensation timing advance value is common timing parameter + value offset; or,

common compensation timing advance value is common timing parameter-value offset.

Here the common compensated timing advance value calculated by the common timing parameter +/-value offset may be positive or negative.

Accordingly, the terminal may sum the round trip delay, the common timing parameter, and the ± numerical offset of the service link in the NTN to obtain the TA to be used. Wherein, + -represents + or-. Namely:

TA is the round trip delay of the serving link (or the timing advance adjustment value of the serving link) + the common backoff timing advance value

Round trip delay of the serving link + common timing parameter ± numerical offset.

For example, when the value offset is a positive value, the common compensation timing advance value used by the terminal may be calculated by using the common compensation timing advance value as the common timing parameter-value offset. The value of the value offset may be agreed by a protocol, or sent/configured to the terminal by the network side. For example, the range of the common timing parameter sent by the sending end is 0 to 10, and the receiving end subtracts a value offset (assumed to be 5) after receiving the common timing parameter, so that the obtained common compensation timing advance value represents a range of-5 to 5. The method is equivalent to that the public timing parameter sent by the sending end is translated by a numerical value offset length at the receiving end, and further the expression range of the public compensation timing advance value required to be used is obtained.

It can be understood that the method can also be used for sending other numerical parameters to realize that the sending end sends a positive value or a negative value, and the receiving end can translate the numerical range to achieve the effect of using the positive/negative value to represent the range. The flexibility of the scheme can be improved, and the complexity of the transmitting end can be simplified.

And in the third mode, the fixed value comprises an offset and a numerical offset.

The network side sends the offset to the terminal, and also promises a numerical offset value with the terminal (or the network side sends the numerical offset value to the terminal), so the terminal side can sum up the round trip delay of the service link in the NTN, the common timing parameter, the ± numerical offset, and the ± offset to obtain the TA to be used, that is:

TA-round trip delay of serving link + common offset timing advance value + -offset

Round trip delay value of the serving link + common timing parameter ± value offset ± offset.

It should be understood that the three ways described above are merely examples and not limitations on fixed values, and that there are no possibilities for other implementations to be excluded in practical applications.

Further, the fixed value, such as the offset, the common timing parameter, or the value offset, may be carried in at least one broadcast information of a System Information Block (SIB) 1, another system information (OSI), a main system information block (MIB), and the like, and is broadcast or multicast-transmitted by the network device to the terminal. In addition, if the offset, the common timing parameter, the numerical offset, etc. are transmitted in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection phase, the network side may carry these information in at least one of RRC information, a rrcrconfiguration message, Downlink Control Information (DCI), group DCI, a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), a Timing Advance Command (TAC), or may transmit them to the UE along with data transmission or in a separately allocated PDSCH bearer.

The signaling designs such as offset, common timing parameter, and numerical offset are specifically exemplified below.

Example 1, the network side may add a new variable field such as T-offset to a random access generic configuration (RACH-ConfigGeneric) parameter to indicate an offset, wherein the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter is typically sent to the UE in a broadcast message or an RRC message, and provides the UE with generic parameters used in the random access procedure. For example:

optionally, the network side may determine the representation range of T-offset according to the possible maximum distance value of ephemeris error or satellite position error. For example, the maximum ephemeris error or satellite position error is 10km, and the T-offset is 16 × Ts/2^μThe T-offset is represented by a dimension unit in a range of 0 to 511, and requires 9 bits of signaling.

It will be appreciated that the T-offset may have different ranges of representation if different maximum satellite positioning error ranges and time dimension units are assumed. For example, after receiving the T-offset, the terminal subtracts the T-offset from the TA adjustment value obtained by the terminal to obtain the TA value of the timing advance used by the terminal, that is, TA (N) ═_TA－T-offset)*16*Ts/2^μ(ii) a Or using TA regulation value obtained by terminal to subtract T-offset value from timing interval N_TAoffsetFinally, the TA value of the timing advance used by the terminal is obtained, namely, TA ═ N_TA+N_TAoffset－T-offset)*16*Ts/2^μ. Wherein N is_TAThe TA adjustment value is obtained by the terminal according to a parameter indicated by the network side, for example, in this embodiment, the TA adjustment value is obtained by the terminal through calculation according to at least one of a common timing advance value, a common compensation timing advance value, a reference point coordinate, and location information of the terminal sent by the network side.

Optionally, the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter may be transmitted in a message such as SIB1, RRC setup signaling (RRCSetup), RRC reconfiguration signaling (RRCReconfiguration), and RRC recovery signaling (RRCResume), so as to ensure that the terminal can receive values such as an offset, a common timing parameter, and a value offset during an initial access phase and a connection state handover, and establish accurate uplink time synchronization.

Example 2, the network side may send, to the terminal, a distance value capable of determining an ephemeris error or a position error or a positioning error of the offset through a random access common configuration (RACH-ConfigGeneric) parameter, where the distance value of the ephemeris error or the position error or the positioning error of the offset is denoted by D-offset.

The example adds a new variable field, D-offset, to the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter to represent a distance value of ephemeris error or position error that enables the determination of the offset.

In this example, the network side can determine the representation range of D-offset according to the maximum possible range value of ephemeris error or satellite position error or satellite positioning error. For example, the maximum value of the ephemeris error or the satellite position error is 10km, the D-offset is expressed in meters as dimensional units, the range of the D-offset is 0 to 1000, and 10 bits of signaling are required for the expression. The 10 bits can represent a range of 0 to 1023, wherein 1001 to 1023 are reserved (reserved) or reserved for other indication purposes.

It will be appreciated that the D-offset may have different ranges of representation if different maximum satellite positioning error ranges and distance dimension units are assumed.

For example, the terminal may subtract D-offset/speed of light from the TA adjustment value obtained by the terminal or subtract D-offset/speed of light from the TA adjustment value

Further obtains the TA value of the timing advance used by the terminal,

indicating rounding up. Namely:

TA＝N_TA*16*Ts/2^μ-D-offset/speed of light; or,

wherein Tc represents a time unit T_c＝1/(Δf_max·N_f)，Δf_max＝480×10³Hz，N_f4096. From the definition of Ts, k is Ts/T_c64, i.e. Ts 1/(Δ f)_ref·N_f,ref),Δf_ref＝15·10³Hz，N_f,ref＝2048。

Example 3, in order to obtain a more accurate TA value for the terminal to apply for accessing the communication system, the network side may send the common backoff timing advance value to the terminal through a random access common configuration (RACH-ConfigGeneric) parameter, where TA-common denotes the common backoff timing advance value:

the network side of the present example adds a new variable field, such as TA-common, to the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter to indicate the parameter value used to determine the common offset or common timing advance value.

Alternatively, the network side can determine the representation range of TA-common according to the maximum possible orbit height and the possible minimum communication elevation angle of the satellite.

For example, assuming that the orbit height is the GEO orbit and the minimum communication elevation angle is 10 degrees, 16.64. T_c/2^uThe representation range of TA-common is required to be-4155513- +4155513 for dimension units, and 23-bit signaling is required for representation. The 23 bits can represent a range of: -4194303- + 4194303. Wherein, the ranges of-4194303 to-4155513 and 4194303 to 4155513 are reserved (reserved), and can also be reserved for other indication purposes. It will be appreciated that the indicated range of TA-common may be different if different satellite orbital altitudes, minimum elevation angles and time dimension units are assumed.

After the terminal receives the TA-common, the terminal may calculate the round trip delay of the service link according to the terminal position and the satellite position, and add the round trip delay to the time length indicated by the TA-common to obtain a TA adjustment value.

It should be understood that TA-common may represent both the common compensated timing advance value and the common propagation delay that the terminal needs to compensate.

It should be understood that TA-common may represent positive values, negative values and zero, the positive values representing early transmission of the uplink signal and the negative values representing late transmission of the uplink signal.

Example 4, to save signaling bits, the network side may combine the indication of common compensated timing advance signaling according to the track height range. For example:

the network side of the present example adds two new variable fields, namely, a low-orbit common timing advance TA-common-LEO and a common timing advance supplement TA-common-compensation, to the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter, which represents a common propagation delay used to determine a common compensated timing advance value or a terminal needs compensation. The TA-common-component is selectively (optional) transmittable, that is, the network side may select to transmit or not to transmit the TA-common-component parameter. The network side may determine whether to send the TA-common-completion parameter according to the track height of the second network device, and specifically refer to the following example.

Optionally, the network side may determine the representation range and the bit number of TA-common-LEO and TA-common-complete according to the orbit altitude range and the possible minimum communication elevation angle of the satellite.

For example, for a scenario where the track height is not higher than 1200km, the network side may send only TA-common-LEO signaling (20 bits), i.e., not TA-common-completion. In this case, only 20 bits of signaling are required to indicate the common offset timing advance value, which is used to indicate the range of-320609 to + 320609. The 20 bits may indicate a range of: -524287- +524287, wherein the reserved range of-524287- +320609 and 320609-524287 is reserved (reserved), and can be reserved for other indication purposes.

For example, for a scenario with a track height greater than 1200km, the network side may send TA-common-LEO and TA-common-compensation signaling (3 bits) to the UE, where TA-common-LEO represents the upper bits and TA-common-compensation represents the lower bits. The TA-common-LEO and the TA-common-complete jointly form 23-bit signaling, which represents the range of-4155513-4155513. The 23 bits can represent a range of: -4194303- + 4194303. Wherein, the reserved range of-4194303-, -4155513 and 4194303-4155513 can be reserved for other indication purposes.

After the terminal receives the common compensation timing advance value represented by the TA-common-LEO and the TA-common-compensation, the terminal may calculate the round trip delay of the service link according to the terminal position and the satellite position, and add the round trip delay to the time length represented by the common compensation timing advance value to obtain the TA adjustment value. The signaling transmission method not only provides flexibility, but also can save a part of signaling bits in a scene with low track height.

Example 5, to save signaling bits in different track height scenarios, the network side may separately indicate common compensation timing advance signaling according to the track height range. For example:

the network side of the present example adds three new variable fields in the RACH-configgenetic parameter, namely, the low-orbit 600 common timing advance TA-common-LEO-600, the low-orbit 1200 common timing advance TA-common-LEO-1200 and the synchronous orbit common timing advance TA-common-GEO, which represent parameter values used to determine the common compensated timing advance value or the common propagation delay that the terminal needs to compensate. The a-common-LEO-600, TA-common-LEO-1200 and TA-common-GEO are all selectable (optional) transmissions, i.e. the network side can select to transmit only one or only two or all of these three parameters.

Optionally, the network side may determine the representation range and the bit number of TA-common-LEO-600, TA-common-LEO-1200 and TA-common-GEO according to the orbit altitude range and the possible minimum communication elevation angle of the satellite. Wherein TA-common-LEO-600 represents a common compensation timing advance value related parameter for a track height of not more than 600km, TA-common-LEO-1200 represents a common compensation timing advance value related parameter for a track height of not more than 1200km, and TA-common-GEO represents a common compensation timing advance value related parameter for a track height of not more than 36000 km.

For example, for a scenario where the track height is not higher than 600km, the network side may send TA-common-LEO-600 signaling (19 bits), i.e., not send TA-common-LEO-1200 and TA-common-GEO. Only 19 bits of signaling need be sent at this time for the terminals to determine the common backoff timing advance value, which is used to indicate the range-197800 … + 197800. The 19 bits may indicate a range of: the range of-262143 to-197800 and 197800 to 262143 is reserved (reserved), and can also be reserved for other indication purposes.

For example, for a scenario with a track height greater than 600km and not greater than 1200km, the network side may send TA-common-LEO-1200 signaling (20 bits) to the UE, i.e., not send TA-common-LEO-600 and TA-common-GEO. Only 20 bits of signaling need be sent for the terminals to determine the common backoff timing advance value at this time, which is used to indicate a range of-320609 … 320609. The 20 bits may indicate a range of: -524287- +524287, wherein the range of-524287- +320609 and 320609-524287 is reserved (reserved), and can also be reserved for other indication purposes.

For example, for a scenario with a track height higher than 1200km, the network side needs to send TA-common-GEO signaling (23 bits), i.e., not to send TA-common-LEO-600 and TA-common-LEO-1200. At this time, a signaling of 23 bits is required to be transmitted for the terminal to determine the common offset timing advance value, which is used to indicate the range of-4155513- + 4155513. The 23 bits can represent a range of: -4194303- + 4194303. Wherein, the ranges of-4194303 to-4155513 and 4194303 to 4155513 are reserved (reserved), and can also be reserved for other indication purposes.

After the terminal receives the common compensation timing advance value represented by any one or more of TA-common-LEO-600, TA-common-LEO-1200 or TA-common-GEO, the round-trip delay of the service link may be calculated according to the terminal position and the satellite position, and added to the time length represented by the common compensation timing advance value to obtain the TA adjustment value.

Example 6, the network side may send a parameter value for determining the common backoff timing advance value or the common timing advance value (i.e. the common timing parameter, here denoted as TA-common-timing) to the terminal through a random access generic configuration (RACH-ConfigGeneric) parameter:

the network side of the present example adds a new variable field common timing parameter, TA-common-timing, to the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter, which represents a parameter value used to determine the common backoff timing advance value or the common timing advance value.

Alternatively, the network side can determine the representative range of TA-common-timing according to the maximum possible orbit height and the possible minimum communication elevation angle of the satellite.

For example, assuming that the orbit height is the GEO orbit and the minimum communication elevation angle is 10 degrees, 16.64. T_c/2^uThe representation range of TA-common-timing is 0-8311026, and 23-bit signaling is required for representation. The 23 bits can represent a range of: 0 to 8388607, wherein the range 8311027 to 8388607 is reserved (reserved), and can be reserved for other indication purposes.

It will be appreciated that the indicated range of TA-common-timing may be different if different satellite orbital altitudes, minimum elevation angles and time dimension units are assumed.

And after receiving the common timing parameter TA-common-timing, the terminal subtracts the common timing parameter TA-common-timing from the numerical offset to obtain a common compensation timing advance value or a common timing advance value.

For example, assuming that the value offset is 4155513 (the value of the value offset can be agreed by the protocol or the value of the value offset configured by the network side to the UE), after the terminal receives TA-common-timing, the terminal obtains the common compensation timing advance value through TA-common-timing-4155513, and the common compensation timing advance value has a range of expression from-4155513 to + 4155513. The method is equivalent to performing an offset operation on the received TA-common-timing value, i.e. TA-common-timing-value offset, where the value offset is equal to 4155513 for example, and the actual use is not limited to this value. For another example, after the terminal receives the TA-common-timing, the common compensated timing advance value may be calculated, and then the round-trip delay of the service link is calculated according to the terminal position and the satellite position, and added to the time length indicated by the common compensated timing advance value to obtain the TA adjustment value.

Furthermore, the transmission signaling methods of the above several examples may also be used in combination.

For example, the network side may add three new variable fields to the RACH-ConfigGeneric parameter, namely, the common timing parameter TA-common-timing-LEO-600 for the low-orbit 600, the common timing parameter TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 for the low-orbit 1200, and the common timing parameter TA-common-timing-GEO for the synchronous orbit, which represents the common timing parameter value used to determine the common compensated timing advance value or the common propagation delay that the terminal needs to compensate:

alternatively, the representative ranges and the number of bits of TA-common-timing-LEO-600, TA-common-timing-LEO-1200, and TA-common-timing-GEO may be determined according to the orbital altitude range and the possible minimum communication elevation angle of the satellite. Wherein TA-common-timing-LEO-600 represents common timing parameters associated with common compensated timing advance values for track heights no greater than 600km, TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 represents common timing parameters associated with common compensated timing advance values for track heights no greater than 1200km, and TA-common-timing-GEO represents common timing parameters associated with common compensated timing advance values for track heights no greater than 36000 km. The TA-common-timing-LEO-600, TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 and TA-common-timing-GEO are all selectable (optional) transmissions, that is, the network side may not transmit and select to transmit only one of the three parameters.

For example, for a scene with a track height of not more than 600km, the minimum communication elevation angle is 10 degrees, and 16 · 64 · T is used_c/2^uFor dimension unit, the network side can send TA-common-timing-LEO-600 signaling (19 bits), i.e. not send TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 and TA-common-timing-GEO. In this case, only 19 bits of common timing parameter signaling need to be sent for the terminal to determine the common offset timing advance value, which is used to indicate the range of 0 to 395600. The 19 bits may indicate a range of: 0 to 524287, wherein the range 395601 to 524287 is reserved (reserved), and can be reserved for other indication purposes. Similarly, the TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 and TA-common-timing-GEO signaling respectively use 20 bits and 23 bits signaling to represent the ranges of 0 ~ 641218 and 0 ~ 8311026.

For example, assuming that the common timing parameters for different ranges of track parameters have different numerical offsets, the TA-common-timing-LEO-600 corresponds to a numerical offset value of 197800, the TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 corresponds to a numerical offset value of 320609, and the TA-common-timing-GEO corresponds to a numerical offset value of 4155513. After the terminal receives the TA-common-timing-LEO-600, the common compensation timing advance value is obtained through the TA-common-timing-LEO-600-197800, and the expression range of the common compensation timing advance value is-197800-197800.

As another example, the indicated ranges of TA-common-timing-LEO-600, TA-common-timing-LEO-1200, or TA-common-timing-GEO may be different for different satellite orbital altitudes, minimum elevation angles, and time dimension units. And after receiving the common timing parameters TA-common-timing-LEO-600, TA-common-timing-LEO-1200 or TA-common-timing-GEO, the terminal subtracts the common timing parameters from corresponding numerical value offsets to obtain a common compensation timing advance value or a common timing advance value. The terminal may calculate the round trip delay of the service link based on the terminal position and the satellite position, and add it to the length of time indicated by the common compensated timing advance value to obtain the TA adjustment value.

Several detailed examples are further illustrated below to describe how the terminal calculates the TA value to use based on the terminal position, satellite position, common offset timing advance value, etc.

Assume that 16.64. T_c/2^uIn dimension units, the round trip delay quantization value of the service link is:

is composed of

Wherein the RTD_serviceWhich represents the round trip delay between the terminal and the satellite, is equal to twice the quotient of the distance between the terminal and the satellite and the speed of light.

Indicating a rounding down.

The terminal obtains a common compensation timing advance value NT_commonThen, the TA amount used when the terminal obtains the preamble or uplink data for sending the random access preamble is:

TA＝(NT_service·+NT_common)*16*64 T_c/2^u。 (2)

if offset T-offset, common timing parameter and value offset are considered, the TA amount used by the terminal is:

TA＝(NT_service·+NT_common－T_-offset)*16*64 T_c/2^u (3)

if the position error D-offset, the common timing parameter and the numerical offset are considered, the TA amount used by the terminal is:

it can be seen that the formula (4) is

The partial replacement of T-offset in equation (3) represents the subtraction of the timing uncertainty caused by the satellite positioning error from the timing advance value to be used by the terminal, i.e., the possible satellite positioning error for which the timing uncertainty is twice divided by the speed of light, and then for (16 · 64 · T)_c/2^u) And carrying out upward rounding quantization processing on the time unit.

The amount of TA used by the terminal may also be:

TA＝(NT_service+ TA-common-timing-value shift 16 + 64T_c/2^u (5)

Wherein, TA-common-t is adoptedimning-numerical offset replacement common compensation timing advance value NT_common。

The amount of TA used by the terminal may also be:

TA＝(NT_service+ TA-common-timing-value offset-T-offset) 16T 64T_c/2^u (6)

The amount of TA used by the terminal may also be:

it should be understood that if the TA amount is calculated in other time units, only the new time unit is needed to replace (16.64. T) in the above equations (1) to (7)_c/2^u) The time unit is just needed. For example, using 64. T_c/2^uIs a dimension unit, then (16, 64, T) in the above formulas (1) to (7)_c/2^u) Time unit is replaced by 64. T_c/2^uThe time unit is just needed.

If NT is calculated_serviceAt time of 64. T_c/2^uCommon compensation timing advance value NT obtained for time unit_commonThe common timing parameter and the numerical offset are 16.64. T_c/2^uIs a unit of time. Then

Then the amount of TA used by the terminal is:

TA＝(NT_service/16·+NT_common)*16*64 T_c/2^u (8)

if the offset T-offset or position error D-offset common, the common timing parameter, and the numerical offset are considered, the terminal uses the TA amount as:

TA＝(NT_service/16·+NT_common－T-offset)*16*64 T_c/2^u (9)

or,

similarly, the formula (10) is

The partial replacement of T-offset in equation (9) represents the subtraction of the timing uncertainty due to satellite positioning error from the timing advance value to be used by the terminal, i.e., the possible satellite positioning error for which the timing uncertainty is twice divided by the speed of light, and then for (16 · 64 · T)_c/2^u) And carrying out upward rounding quantization processing on the time unit.

The amount of TA used by the terminal may also be:

TA＝(NT_service16 + TA common timing numerical offset 16T 64T_c/2^u (11)

Wherein the replacement of the common compensation timing advance value by (TA-common-timing-value offset) is NT_common。

The amount of TA used by the terminal may also be:

TA＝(NT_service16 + TA common timing numerical offset T offset 16T 64T_c/2^u(12)

The amount of TA used by the terminal may also be:

the effect of Cell hand over (beam switch) on the common compensated or common timing advance is described below.

1、Cell handover：

1) In the Cell handover flow, the UE measures and reports the neighboring Cell channel quality according to an instruction from the network side, and then sends an rrcreeconfiguration signaling to the UE from a gNB (referred to as a source gNB for short, which is the same as or different from a gNB in which a target Cell is located) in which the source Cell is located. As can be seen from the above signaling, the common backoff timing advance or the common timing advance signaling exists in rrcreeconfiguration, and therefore, the common backoff timing advance or the common timing advance of the target cell can be carried in rrcreeconfiguration. For non-random access handover (RACHless handover), rrcreeconfiguration signaling may also be sent to the UE by the source gNB, or a common backoff timing advance value or a common timing advance value of the target gNB may also be sent to the UE.

2) The UE receives the SIB1 of the target cell, and can also acquire the common compensated timing advance or the common timing advance of the target cell.

2. satellite switch: reference may be made to the process of cell handover, which is not described herein again.

3. Beam switch: when the source beam and the target beam belong to the same cell. The common compensatory timing advance or common timing advance is broadcast in the SIB1, which is cell level signaling. Therefore, when the beam switch is made, two beams use the same common compensation timing advance or common timing advance, and the condition of timing jump can not occur. (if the common backoff timing advance or the common timing advance is beam-level, it may happen that the network side compensates different delay values for different beams, and thus timing hops

4、Gateway switch:

When a gateway soft handover (soft gateway switch) occurs, that is, the UE can establish a connection with two gateway simultaneously and can receive messages of the two gateway, the gateway switch scenario may be equivalent to a cell handover procedure, that is, a common backoff timing advance value or a common timing advance value of a target gateway may be sent to the UE in rrcreeconfiguration signaling.

When a gateway hard handover (hard gateway switch) occurs, i.e., the UE can establish a connection with only one gateway at a time. The feeder link part delay varies when the UE disconnects from one gateway and simultaneously establishes a connection with another gateway, i.e. a hard switch occurs. The gNB may send to the UE, prior to the gateway switch, the common backoff timing advance value or common timing advance value it used at the target gateway or a difference from the common backoff timing advance value or common timing advance value now used. For example, the UE of the whole beam or cell needs to update the common backoff timing advance value or the common timing advance value, and therefore, the parameter may be updated using rrcreeconfiguration signaling.

Further, when soft handoff of the gateway or hard handoff of the gateway occurs, the gNB uses MAC CE signaling to send the common backoff timing advance value or the common timing advance value of the target gateway to the UE or a difference from the common backoff timing advance value or the common timing advance value that is currently used.

In some special scenarios, transmitting the common compensated timing advance value difference or the common timing advance value difference also requires the same number of bits to be used as transmitting the full common compensated timing advance value or the common timing advance value. For example, when the network side performs timing compensation on the uplink signal before switching and the network side does not perform timing compensation on the uplink signal after switching, the complete round trip delay of the feeder link part needs to be represented, and the bit number required by the common compensation timing advance value difference is the same as the bit number required by the representation of the complete common compensation timing advance value. If the protocol does not support these special scenarios, then sending the common backoff timing advance value difference can save signaling overhead compared to sending the full common backoff timing advance value.

The validity of the common compensated timing advance value or the common timing advance value is described below.

The SIB1 update period determines the maximum error of the common compensated or common timing advance value if the common compensated or common timing advance value is carried by the SIB 1. The error results from relative motion between the satellite and the gateway.

The system message (including SIB1) is updated only in the start frame of the modification period (modification period), and the modification period start frame satisfies:

SFN mod m＝0；

wherein m represents the number of system frames included in the length of the change period, SFN represents the number of the system frames, and mod represents the remainder;

m ═ modificationPeriodCoeff × defaultPagingCycle, unit: frame (frame);

modificationPeriodCoeff＝2/4/8/16；

defaultPagingCycle＝32/64/128/256。

wherein the modificationPeriodCoeff and defaultPAggingcycle can be configured through SIB 1.

It can be seen that the minimum modification period is 64 frame-640 ms.

Assume that the common compensation timing advance value indicates a difference between a feeder link round trip delay and a network-side uplink data timing compensation value. If the satellite is closer to the gateway, the value of the common offset timing advance indicator may be larger, which may cause preamble or uplink data to arrive earlier, resulting in inter-symbol interference ISI.

In order to avoid ISI, a common compensation timing advance value or a common timing advance value corresponding to a start time of a next update period may be transmitted at a start time of a certain update period. Therefore, the sent common compensation timing advance value or the common timing advance value is smaller, and the UE sends preamble or uplink data to the network side later, so that ISI is avoided. For example, if the update period is 640ms, the late arrival time does not exceed 33.28 us.

Example 15

The concept of the technical scheme of the invention can also be applied to the transmission of a timing advance rate (TA rate) reference point, a Doppler pre-compensation reference point/a Doppler post-compensation reference point.

Specifically, the TA rate reference point may be divided into a serving link TA rate reference point and a feeder link TA rate reference point. The serving link TA rate mentioned here and in the following refers to the serving link common TA rate.

Serving link timing advance rate of change (TA rate) reference point: the terminal can calculate the serving link common timing advance change rate of the beam or cell according to the relative motion speed or distance change rate between the satellite (the terminal can acquire the position and speed information of the satellite through ephemeris information) and the serving link TA rate reference point. For example, based on the direction of movement of the satellite, the position of the satellite and the position of the reference point,the terminal can calculate the relative velocity V between the satellite and the reference point (V takes a negative value when the satellite moves towards the reference point and takes a positive value when the satellite moves towards the reference point), TA rate is equal to 2V/c, and c is the light velocity 3X 10⁸m/s. Thus, the change in TA after a period of time Δ T is calculated as Δ T × 2V/c based on the TA rate. The corrected TA is TA _ original +. DELTA.T.2. multidot.V/c, and TA _ original is the previously used TA. Thus, the terminal can utilize the common rate of change of timing advance to correct the timing advance of the signal transmitted by the transmitting terminal (if there is a feeder link common rate of change of timing advance, the serving link common rate of change of timing advance and the feeder link common rate of change of timing advance, i.e., the sum of both, can be used jointly to calculate the final rate of change of TA to correct the uplink timing advance adjustment value).

Feeder link timing advance rate of change (TA rate) reference point: the terminal may calculate the feeder link common timing advance rate of change of the beam or cell based on the relative velocity of motion or rate of change of distance between the satellite (from which the terminal may obtain position and velocity information via ephemeris information) and the feeder link TA rate reference point (same as described above). The terminal uses the common timing advance change rate to modify the timing advance adjustment value of the signal transmitted by the transmitting terminal (if there is a serving link common timing advance change rate, the serving link common timing advance change rate and the feeder link common timing advance change rate, i.e. the sum of the two rates, can be used jointly to calculate the final TA change rate, so as to modify the uplink timing advance adjustment value). The feeder link timing advance rate of change reference point may be a location coordinate of the gateway station.

Doppler pre/post compensation reference point: the terminal can calculate the Doppler pre/post compensation value of the beam or the cell according to the relative motion speed between the satellite (the terminal can acquire the position and speed information of the satellite through the ephemeris information) and the Doppler pre/post compensation reference point. The doppler pre/post compensation value may represent a doppler post compensation value performed by the satellite on a signal transmitted by the terminal received in the corresponding beam/cell, and a doppler pre-compensation value performed by the satellite on a downlink signal transmitted in the corresponding beam/cell. Or, the doppler pre/post compensation value may indicate that the terminal needs to perform a doppler pre-compensation value on the signal when transmitting the signal transmitted by the terminal, and a doppler post-compensation value on the signal when the terminal receives the downlink signal. The doppler pre/post compensation reference point can be selected at any position covered by the beam/cell according to the system requirement, for example, the central point of the beam/cell.

If the doppler value calculated according to the doppler pre/post compensation reference point, the satellite position and the motion direction indicates a doppler pre-compensation value made by the network side on the downlink signal, the terminal with the function of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can calculate the frequency offset of the crystal oscillator according to the doppler pre-compensation value and the frequency offset value of the downlink signal. Meanwhile, the terminal with the GNSS function can calculate the doppler frequency offset value caused by the uplink channel according to the position of the terminal, the position of the satellite and the movement direction of the satellite. And subtracting the Doppler post-compensation value of the signal sent by the terminal by the satellite side from the Doppler frequency offset value of the uplink channel to obtain a pre-compensation value of the signal sent by the terminal with the GNSS function.

In one possible design, referring to fig. 21A, a set of reference points may be defined, including serving link reference point coordinates, compensation reference point coordinates, ATG reference point coordinates, serving link TA rate reference point coordinates, feeder link TA rate reference point coordinates, doppler pre/post compensation reference point coordinates. In another possible design, referring to fig. 21B, the network side may separately transmit the serving link TA rate reference point coordinates, the feeder link TA rate reference point coordinates, and the doppler pre/post compensation reference point coordinates.

It should be understood that the above-mentioned multiple reference points (e.g., serving link TA rate reference point, feeder link TA rate reference point coordinates, doppler pre/post compensation reference points) may be the same reference point, or multiple reference points may be located at the same location. For example, if two or three of the serving link reference point coordinate, the serving link TA rate reference point coordinate, and the doppler pre/post compensation reference point coordinate are the same reference coordinate, the system only needs to transmit one reference coordinate, and the use mode of the reference point is defined in advance with the terminal. For example, if the TA rate reference point coordinate of the service link and the TA rate reference point coordinate of the service link are the same reference point, the system and the terminal are well defined, after the terminal receives the reference point, the common timing advance change rate of the service link of the beam or the cell may be calculated according to the relative motion speed or the distance change rate between the satellite (the terminal may obtain the position and the speed information of the satellite through ephemeris information) and the reference point, and the terminal obtains the common timing advance adjustment value of the service link according to the round trip delay between the position of the satellite and the reference point.

The above-mentioned set of reference points may use the signaling transmission positions used in the foregoing embodiments.

In one possible implementation, the serving link TA rate reference point coordinates, the feeder link TA rate reference point coordinates, and the doppler pre/post compensation reference point coordinates may be replaced with a serving link TA rate value (signed), a feeder link TA rate value (signed), and a doppler pre/post compensation value (signed), respectively. Similar to the third embodiment, the reference point coordinates and TA rate value, doppler pre/post compensation value can be used in combination. For example, as shown in fig. 22, the serving link TA rate reference point coordinates may be used in combination with the feeder link TA rate values, and the doppler pre/post compensation values.

In another possible implementation, as shown in fig. 23, an indication bit may be added to each signaling to indicate whether the transmitted signaling is the serving link TA rate reference point coordinate or the serving link TA rate value (with sign indication), the feeder link TA rate reference point coordinate or the feeder link TA rate value (with sign indication), or the doppler pre/post compensation reference point coordinate or the doppler pre/post compensation value. For the non-staring mode, the service link common TA rate of a certain beam/cell is not changed, so that signaling is sent to the terminal in a mode of the service link TA rate value (with a sign), the signaling change frequency can be reduced, and the system complexity can be reduced. Therefore, the signaling transmission method shown in fig. 23 can reduce the complexity of signaling transmission of the system.

When the network side does not send the TA rate reference point coordinates or the doppler compensation reference point coordinates or sends an invalid coordinate point (e.g., coordinate values of all zeros), the terminal may use a default reference point coordinate value, for example, the default reference point coordinate value may be a coordinate value of the gateway station. That is, when the network side does not transmit the TA rate reference point coordinates or the doppler compensation reference point coordinates or transmits an invalid coordinate point (e.g., coordinate values of all zeros), the TA rate reference point coordinates or the doppler compensation reference point falls back to the default reference point.

Example 16

In this embodiment, based on embodiment 14, the TA rate reference point coordinates and/or TA rate value of the serving link/feeder link are replaced with the TA rate angle of the serving link/feeder link.

Referring to fig. 24, it is assumed that the network side transmits the TA rate angle α of the serving link and/or the TA rate angle β of the feeder link to the terminal, and the speed of the satellite in the moving direction is a. After receiving the TA rate angle, the terminal may calculate the TA rate value corresponding to the serving link according to the formula [ -2 × cos (α) × a/c ], and calculate the TA rate value corresponding to the feeder link according to the formula [ -2 × cos (β) × a/c ]. Then, the change in TA after a period of time Δ T is calculated as [ -2 × cos (α) × A/c ] + [ -2 × cos (β) × A/c ] based on the TA rate. The modified TA is TA _ original + [ -2. sup. cos (α). sup. A/c ] + [ -2. sup. cos (β). sup. A/c ], and TA _ original is the previously used TA. If the network side only sends the TA rate angle alpha of the terminal service link or the TA rate angle beta of the feeder link, the terminal only needs to calculate the updated TA according to the TA _ original + [ -2 × cos (alpha) × A/c ] or the TA _ original + [ -2 × cos (beta) × A/c ].

Example 17

In this embodiment, the parameters sent to the terminal, for example, the link reference point coordinates, the compensation reference point coordinates, the TA rate reference point coordinates, and the like, may all send the validity period corresponding to the parameters to the terminal at the same time. This is because the LEO satellite moves at any moment, the position relationship between the terminal and the satellite changes all the time, and the validity period of the public timing advance value or the reference point coordinate transmitted from the network to the terminal is not applicable any more after the validity period passes.

For example, when the network side sends the compensated reference point coordinates to the terminal, the reference point coordinates are sent to the terminal at the same timeThe target effective period is Δ T. Where Δ T may be a magnitude in units of time slots, or a magnitude in units of Ts. If the time slot is taken as the unit, the terminal receives the reference point coordinate and then delta T/2^μThis compensation reference point is no longer applicable after ms. If in Ts units, the terminal no longer applies the compensated reference point after Ts seconds Δ T x Ts after receiving the reference point coordinates.

If the network side sends the link reference point coordinate, the compensation reference point coordinate, the TA rate reference point coordinate and the like to the terminal in a periodic broadcast mode, when the parameter is expired, the terminal can obtain a new parameter value by re-receiving the parameter and in a decoding mode. If the network side sends the link reference point coordinate, the compensation reference point coordinate, the TA rate reference point coordinate and the like to the terminal in a non-periodic broadcast mode, when the parameter is expired, the terminal can obtain a new parameter value by reapplying the parameter to the network side.

In the embodiment, the parameters sent by the network side to the terminal configure the corresponding validity period, so that the reliability of communication can be further improved.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, a satellite communication scenario and an ATG communication scenario may exist simultaneously. If both the satellite communication scenario and the ATG communication scenario exist, the network side and the terminal may simultaneously perform operations performed by the network side and the terminal in the ATG communication scenario and the ATG communication scenario, and the specific implementation method in this case may refer to the satellite communication scenario and the ATG communication scenario respectively, which is not described herein again.

The above embodiments may be combined with each other to achieve different technical effects.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, the method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective of interaction between a network device (e.g., a satellite, a gateway, an ATG network device, etc.) and a terminal. In order to implement the functions in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application, the terminal and the network device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and the functions are implemented in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module. Whether any of the above-described functions is implemented as a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution. The following describes a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 2500, where the apparatus 2500 may be the first network device in the foregoing method embodiment, or an apparatus (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the first network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the first network device. The apparatus 2500 may include a module corresponding to one-to-one to execute the method/operation/step/action executed by the first network device in the method embodiment, where the module may be a hardware circuit, or may be software, or may be implemented by combining a hardware circuit and software.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 25, the apparatus 2500 includes:

a processing unit 2501, configured to determine a first parameter according to a first delay compensation value, where the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the first network device for a signal transmitted by a receiving terminal, and the first parameter is used to indicate a difference between a round-trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network NTN and the first delay compensation value, where the difference is used to determine a TA used by the terminal to transmit the signal;

a sending unit 2502, configured to send the first parameter.

The specific implementation manner of the operation performed by each unit may refer to the specific implementation manner of the operation performed by the first network device in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described here again.

The present embodiment also provides a communication apparatus 2600, where the apparatus 2600 may be the second network device in the above method embodiment, or an apparatus (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the second network device, or an apparatus capable of being used with the first network device. The apparatus 2500 may include a module corresponding to one-to-one to execute the method/operation/step/action executed by the second network device in the method embodiment, where the module may be a hardware circuit, or may be software, or may be implemented by combining a hardware circuit and software.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 26, apparatus 2600 comprises:

a processing unit 2601, configured to determine a position coordinate of a compensation reference point according to a second delay compensation value, where the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value that is performed by the second network device for a signal sent by a receiving terminal; the second delay compensation value is used for determining a TA used by the terminal to send a signal, where the TA is equal to a round trip delay of a serving link in the NTN minus the second delay compensation value;

a sending unit 2602, configured to send the position coordinates of the compensated reference point.

The specific implementation manner of the operation performed by each unit may refer to the specific implementation manner of the operation performed by the second network device in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described here again.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 2700, where the apparatus 2700 may be the ATG network device in the above method embodiment, or an apparatus (for example, a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the ATG network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the ATG network device. The apparatus 2700 may include a module corresponding to one-to-one to execute the method/operation/step/action executed by the ATG network device in the method embodiment, where the module may be a hardware circuit, or may be software, or may be implemented by combining a hardware circuit and software.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 27, an apparatus 2700 includes:

a processing unit 2701, configured to determine a position coordinate of an ATG reference point, where the position coordinate of the ATG reference point is used to determine a TA used by a terminal to send a signal to the ATG network device;

a sending unit 2702, configured to send the position coordinates of the ATG reference point.

The specific implementation of the operation performed by each unit may refer to the specific implementation of the operation performed by the ATG network device in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described here.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 2800, where the apparatus 280 may be a terminal in the foregoing method embodiment, or a terminal (for example, a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) in the ATG network device, or an apparatus that can be used in cooperation with the terminal. The apparatus 2800 may include a module corresponding to one-to-one executing the method/operation/step/action executed by the terminal in the method embodiment, where the module may be a hardware circuit, or may be software, or may be implemented by combining a hardware circuit and software.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 28, apparatus 2800 includes:

a receiving unit 2801, configured to receive a first parameter, where the first parameter is used to indicate a difference between a round-trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network NTN and a first delay compensation value, where the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation performed by the first network device for a signal transmitted by a receiving terminal, and the difference is used to determine a TA used by the terminal to transmit the signal;

a processing unit 2802 is configured to determine a TA value used for transmitting a signal according to the first parameter.

Or,

a receiving unit 2801, configured to receive a position coordinate of a compensation reference point, where the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value that is performed by the second network device for receiving a signal sent by a terminal, and the second delay compensation value is used to determine a TA used by the terminal to send the signal, where the TA is equal to a round-trip delay of a serving link in an NTN minus the second delay compensation value;

a processing unit 2802 configured to determine a TA used for transmitting a signal according to the position coordinates of the compensated reference point.

Or,

a receiving unit 2801 for receiving position coordinates of an air-to-ground ATG reference point;

and the processing unit 2802 is configured to determine, according to the position coordinates of the ATG reference point, a TA used for transmitting a signal.

The specific implementation manner of the operation performed by each unit may refer to the specific implementation manner of the operation performed by the terminal in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described here.

The communication device in the embodiment of the present application is described above, and possible product forms of the communication device are described below. It should be understood that any type of product having the functions of the communication device described above with reference to fig. 25 to 28 falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application. It should be further understood that the following description is only exemplary and does not limit the product form of the communication device according to the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 29 is a communication apparatus 2900 according to an embodiment of the present application, which can be used to execute the method executed by the first network device, the second network device, the ATG device, or the terminal. The apparatus 2900 may include a processor 2901 and a communication interface for communicating with other communication devices; the processor 2901 is configured to run a set of programs to cause the apparatus to implement the method steps in the above-described method embodiments.

The processor 2901 may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or the like, and may implement or perform the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor 2901 may be a microprocessor, or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

Communication interface 2902 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium. Illustratively, where the apparatus is a terminal, the other device may be a satellite, a gateway, or an ATG network device. When the apparatus is a satellite, gateway station or ATG network device, the other device may be a terminal.

Optionally, the apparatus 2900 can also include a memory 2903 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 2903 may be a nonvolatile memory such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), and may also be a volatile memory such as a random-access memory 2903 (RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing a storage function for storing program instructions and/or data.

A memory 2903 may be coupled with the processor 2901. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be an electrical, mechanical or other form for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. The processor 2901 might operate in conjunction with the memory 2903. The processor 2901 might execute program instructions stored in the memory 2903. At least one of the at least one memory 2903 can be included in the processor 2901.

It should be understood that the specific connection medium among the communication interface 2902, the processor 2901, and the memory 2903 is not limited in this embodiment. In the embodiment of the present invention, the memory 2903, the communication interface 2902, and the processor 2901 are connected by a bus in fig. 29, the bus is shown by a thick line in fig. 29, and the connection manner between the other components is merely illustrative and not limited thereto. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 29, but this does not mean only one bus or one type of bus.

Fig. 30 is a device 3000 according to an embodiment of the present application, which may be used to execute the method executed by the first network device, the second network device, the ATG device, or the terminal, where the device 3000 may be a communication device or a chip in the communication device. As shown in fig. 30, the apparatus 3000 includes: at least one input (s))3001, logic 3002, and at least one output (s)) 3003.

Alternatively, the logic circuit 3002 may be a chip, an encoder, a coding circuit or other integrated circuits that can implement the method of the present application.

Since the specific methods and embodiments have been described above, the functions of the input interface 3001, the logic circuit 3002, or the output interface 3003 may refer to relevant parts of the corresponding embodiments, and are not described herein again.

An embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where computer-readable instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer-readable instructions are executed on a communication apparatus, the communication apparatus is caused to execute the method executed by the first network device, the second network device, the ATG device, or the terminal.

Embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which includes instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method executed by the first network device, the second network device, the ATG device, or the terminal.

Embodiments of the present application are described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to encompass such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of determining a timing advance, TA, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a first network device determines a first parameter according to a first delay compensation value, wherein the first delay compensation value is delay compensation performed by the first network device for receiving a signal transmitted by a terminal, the first parameter is used for indicating a difference value between a round trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) and the first delay compensation value, and the difference value is used for determining a Timing Advance (TA) used by the terminal for transmitting the signal;

the first network device sends the first parameter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parameter is indicative of a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in an NTN and the first delay compensation value, comprising:

the first parameter is a difference value between the round trip delay of the feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value; or

The first parameter is used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first parameter is used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value, the first parameter is a location coordinate of a compensation reference point, wherein the difference is determined based on the round trip delay between the compensation reference point and a second network device, and the round trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device is determined based on the location coordinate of the compensation reference point and the location coordinate of the second network device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

and the first network equipment sends first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the first parameter is the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

the first network equipment sends second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value;

wherein the first delay compensation value is smaller than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the feeder link, and the difference is a positive value; or, the first delay compensation value is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the service link in the NTN, and the difference is a negative value.

6. The method of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the TA is:

a sum of a round trip delay of a service link in the NTN and the difference; or, the sum of the round trip delay of the service link in the NTN, the difference, and the offset;

wherein the offset is associated with a time division duplex, TDD, mode or a frequency division duplex, FDD, mode.

7. The method of any one of claims 1-6, further comprising:

the first network device sends a second parameter, wherein the second parameter is used for indicating a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by a second network device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second parameter is for indicating a common round trip delay for a serving link of a second network device covering a beam or cell, comprising:

the second parameter is a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by the second network equipment; or

The second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by a second network device, the second parameter being a location coordinate of a serving link reference point;

the common round trip delay of the service link is determined according to the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device, and the round trip delay between the service link reference point and the second network device is determined according to the position coordinate of the service link reference point and the position coordinate of the second network device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

and the first network equipment sends third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating that the second parameter is the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link.

11. The method of any of claims 1-10, wherein the first network device sending the first parameter comprises:

the first network equipment carries the first parameter in a system information block SIB1, other system messages OSI or a main system information block MIB and sends the first parameter; or

The first network equipment loads the first parameter in RRC information, RRC reconfiguration information, downlink control information DCI, group DCI, a media access control MAC element or a timing advance command TAC and sends the first parameter in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection stage; or

And the first network equipment transmits the first parameter bearer in an RRC reconfiguration message or a BWP related signaling when the terminal performs BWP handover of the cell/beam/partial bandwidth.

12. A method of determining a timing advance, TA, comprising:

the second network equipment determines the position coordinate of a compensation reference point according to a second time delay compensation value, wherein the second time delay compensation value is a time delay compensation value which is made by the second network equipment aiming at a signal sent by a receiving terminal; the second delay compensation value is used for determining a TA used by the terminal to send a signal, where the TA is equal to a round trip delay of a serving link in the NTN minus the second delay compensation value;

the second network device transmits the position coordinates of the compensated reference point.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

the second network device sends a second parameter, where the second parameter is used to indicate a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second parameter is indicative of a common round trip delay for a serving link of a beam or cell covered by a second network device, comprising:

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device, the second parameter being a location coordinate of a serving link reference point;

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

and the second network equipment sends third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating that the second parameter is the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link.

17. The method of any of claims 12-16, wherein the second network device transmitting the location coordinates of the compensated reference point comprises:

the second network equipment loads the position coordinates of the compensation reference point in a system information block SIB1, other system messages OSI or a main system information block MIB and sends the position coordinates of the compensation reference point; or

The second network equipment loads the position coordinate of the compensation reference point in RRC information, RRC reconfiguration information, downlink control information DCI, group DCI, a media access control MAC element or a timing advance command TAC to send in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection stage; or

And the second network equipment carries the position coordinates of the compensation reference point in an RRC reconfiguration message or a BWP related signaling and sends the position coordinates when the terminal performs cell/beam/partial bandwidth BWP switching.

18. A method of determining a timing advance, TA, comprising:

a terminal receives a first parameter, wherein the first parameter is used for indicating a difference value between a round-trip delay of a feeder link in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) and a first delay compensation value, the first delay compensation value is a delay compensation value of a first network device for receiving a signal sent by the terminal, and the difference value is used for determining a Timing Advance (TA) used by the terminal for sending the signal;

and the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the first parameter.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first parameter is indicative of a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in an NTN and the first delay compensation value, comprising:

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first parameter is used to determine a difference between a round trip delay of a feeder link in the NTN and the first delay compensation value, the first parameter is a location coordinate of a compensation reference point, wherein the difference is determined based on the round trip delay between the compensation reference point and a second network device, and wherein the round trip delay between the compensation reference point and the second network device is determined based on the location coordinate of the compensation reference point and the location coordinate of the second network device.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal receives first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the first parameter is the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point;

and the terminal determines the first parameter as the difference value or the position coordinate of the compensation reference point according to the first indication information.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal receives second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value;

the terminal determines that the difference value is a positive value or a negative value according to the second indication information;

wherein the difference is a positive value, the first delay compensation value is smaller than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on the feeder link; or, the difference is a negative value, and the first delay compensation value is greater than the round trip delay of the feeder link or the compensation reference point is located on a service link in the NTN.

23. The method of any one of claims 19-22, wherein the TA is:

24. The method of any one of claims 19-23, further comprising:

the terminal receives a second parameter, wherein the second parameter is used for indicating a common round trip delay of a service link of a beam or a cell covered by a second network device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the second parameter is indicative of a common round trip delay for a serving link of a beam or cell covered by a second network device, comprising:

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a second network device covering a beam or cell, the second parameter being a location coordinate of a serving link reference point;

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal receives third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating that the second parameter is the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link;

and the terminal determines the second parameter as the public round trip delay of the service link or the position coordinate of the reference point of the service link according to the third indication information.

28. The method of any one of claims 18-27, wherein the first network device receives a first parameter comprising:

the terminal receives a system information block SIB1, other system messages OSI or main system information block MIB and transmits the system information block SIB1, the SIB1, the OSI or the MIB carries a first parameter; or

The terminal receives RRC information, RRC reconfiguration information, Downlink Control Information (DCI), group DCI, Media Access Control (MAC) elements or a Timing Advance Command (TAC) in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection stage, wherein the RRC information, the RRC reconfiguration information, the DCI, the group DCI, the MAC elements or the TAC carry first parameters; or

The first network device receives an RRC reconfiguration message or BWP-related signaling when the terminal performs BWP handover, where the RRC reconfiguration message or the BWP-related signaling carries a first parameter.

29. A method of determining a timing advance, TA, comprising:

a terminal receives a position coordinate of a compensation reference point, wherein the second delay compensation value is a delay compensation value which is made by the second network equipment aiming at a signal sent by a receiving terminal, the second delay compensation value is used for determining a TA (timing advance) used by the terminal for sending the signal, and the TA is equal to the difference between the round-trip delay of a service link in the NTN and the second delay compensation value;

and the terminal determines the TA used for sending the signal according to the position coordinate of the compensation reference point.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the method further comprises:

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the second parameter is indicative of a common round trip delay for a serving link of a beam or cell covered by a second network device, comprising:

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the second parameter is used to determine a common round trip delay of a serving link of a beam or cell covered by the second network device, the second parameter being a location coordinate of a serving link reference point;

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises:

34. The method of any of claims 29-33, wherein the terminal transmitting the position coordinates of the compensated reference point comprises:

the terminal receives a system information block SIB1, other system messages OSI or a main system information block MIB, the SIB1, OSI or MIB carrying position coordinates of a compensation reference point; or

The terminal receives RRC information, RRC reconfiguration information, Downlink Control Information (DCI), group DCI, Media Access Control (MAC) elements or a Timing Advance Command (TAC) in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection stage, wherein the RRC information, the RRC reconfiguration information, the DCI, the group DCI, the MAC elements or the TAC carry position coordinates of a compensation reference point; or

The terminal receives an RRC reconfiguration message or a BWP related signaling when performing cell/beam/partial bandwidth BWP handover, wherein the RRC reconfiguration message or the BWP related signaling carries the position coordinates of the compensation reference point.

35. A communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface for communicating with other communication devices; the processor is configured to run a set of programs to cause the method of any of claims 1-11 or 12-17 or 18-28 or 29-34 to be performed.

36. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon which, when run on a communication device, cause the method of any of claims 1-11 or 12-17 or 18-28 or 29-34 to be performed.